It was the fall of 2016 as one of the telecommunications company Ericsson internal attention konsultfakturor sticking out. A small consulting company invoiced Ericsson millions of kronor for it services, which was much more expensive than other it consulting company.
It turned out that one of Ericsson’s senior managers signed a contract directly with the consultant, despite the fact that the contracts in accordance with internal guidelines shall be operated by the purchasing department. Also it raised questions, because the manager lacked the authority to write such an agreement, according to the task assigned to the DN.
a personal friend with the-the head of Ericsson. Both live in the same place outside Stockholm, and on Facebook, their families, wives and children, is seen to interact with each other since 2013, before the agreement between Ericsson and the company was written.
the DN has taken the part of the agreement that the director made with his friend. Several within the Ericsson reacted internally on how the contract was designed. Among other things, lacked a date and had a bonus program that was structured so that the form of bonus payments that were payable to the consultants based on what the purchasing department felt was the vague criteria. Under the agreement, it was the high Ericssonchefen that would account for the evaluation of how the friend’s companies succeeded in their work – something that gave miljonbonusar to the company.
Ericsson’s purchasing department initiated an examination of the agreement and estimated that the cost of the consultants several times over the market price. According to the task to DN landed in the end the cost on a total of around sek 45 million for an average of three consultants during a three-year period. People in the purchasing department made the assessment that the reasonable cost should have been around 10-15 million.
that brought internal questions was that one of the it consultants worked remotely from the rest of the world, despite the fact that all the work would be carried out in Sweden.
Documentation DN taken note of the evidence shows that the purchasing department during a period of halted payments on nearly 20 million to the company because of the many issues raised regarding the agreement.
Several employees at the on the purchasing unit alerted to the higher managers of the disputed contract, the exceptionally high cost and the fact that the head, which is not usually contract, hired his personal friend.
as a result of inköpsenhetens data launched in the spring of 2017, an investigation of several people involved from Ericsson’s internal audit function.
Also, Ericsson’s ceo Börje Ekholm was informed of the alleged malpractices in the company, according to the DN’s data. What internutredningen came to, and what effect it had is unknown.
the it manager continued to work with extended powers. One of visselblåsarna, who was director within the company, in a reorganization shortly thereafter, however, of their duties and later left the Ericsson after to have been offered the severance pay.
the Ericsson code of business ethics says that business decisions are to be taken for the group’s best, and not based on individual relationships. The internal guidelines warn that the mere suspicion of such abuse can harm the company.
”We must avoid situations where our personal interest may conflict with, or even appear to conflict with, the interests of the group”.
No employee may, for their own, family members or friends to take advantage of business opportunities identified by the work of Ericsson, if it is in conflict with Ericsson’s interests.
the DN has been in contact with both the high set up Ericssonchefen and konsultbolagets ceo. None of them want to answer questions. Ericsson’s press office will reply only in writing via presskontakten Kristoffer Edshage.
”we do not recognize ourselves in the description that questions indirectly”, and report that both employees and consultants are encouraged to report suspected violations of laws or the code of business ethics.
He confirms, however, that Ericsson during a period hired the consulting company and that there were problems with the agreement.
”After that the deficiencies observed in the supply agreements, which first established with the company corrected the agreement.”
Ericsson does not want to answer how it looked on the findings of the investigation, the declarations of the high head been given, or the consequences it is got. It does not comment on, nor why a co-worker who participated in the investigation later reshuffled.
”As we have previously said does not comment on Ericsson around individual employees. What we can say is that leverantörsavtalet with the company corrected after the errors in the initial process had been identified. That is to say that the agreement was to apply to followed Ericsson’s guidelines fully.”
they have in the last two years had over 850 so-called ”compliancefall”, reports of suspected violations of laws, regulations and guidelines, but the telecommunications company does not want to answer how many of these that turned out to be or if some of them have led to polisanmälningar.
