the State-owned Almi’s mission is to promote entrepreneurship in Sweden, and in accordance with the government’s gender equality policy, the company shall have a particular focus on women.
was the third of entrepreneurs in Sweden is a woman – but the Almis objectives is that the proportion of loans to female entrepreneurs will be higher.
According to the company’s reporting to the government to live up to the goal.
in the Year 2017 went 31 percent of the 4.200 new loans were granted to women, it says in the annual report and the sustainability report, but it is not true, according to a review by the national audit office who are now criticising Almi in order to consistently have embellished the figures over a number of years.
an application so records Almi the company is headed by a man or a woman, or if it is led by a so-called mixed team, that is to say, a group of both men and women, ” explains Emilia Johansson, project manager at the authority, who led the review of the Almis lending.
– But then when they report statistics to the government so they confuse the categories of the mixed and women, she continues and adds that this is done without it is clear that you have done so.
According to the Swedish nao’s calculations, the proportion of women who receive loans from Almi actually significantly lower. In fact, went only 17% of the loans granted in 2017 to women, 69 percent for men and 13% of the company led by the groups with both sexes represented.
A distribution that has remained relatively constant during the period between years 2013 and 2017 that have been subject to the agency’s review.
gives the Swedish national audit office’s review does not answer, says Johansson.
– But in all cases can say is that it gives a better outcome than if you were to count in a different way – and that the government and the riksdag have a picture of the Almis performance that is misleading.
the national audit office highlights the fact that the method is not consistent with that used by Statistics Sweden (SCB) in order to produce the statistics that Almi self compare themselves with.
at the same time they argue that part of the responsibility also rests on the government, which were also called for better accounting – and that weaknesses in its governance of the company in other ways.
Among other things, risk several of the objectives that the government set up to collide with each other when in ägaranvisningen is not clear how the initiative should proceed in order to achieve these, ” explains Johansson, and mentions the objective of focus on growth companies as an example.
– To focus on this and at the same time, female entrepreneurs can be difficult, ” she says.
