An organization turns to the Allmänna arvsfonden and seeks a grant of SEK 12.7 million to counter hate messages in computer games. This corresponds to, among other things, 5.5 full-time positions. Nothing in the application justifies why such high staffing would be needed, writes the National Audit Office, which reviewed the process. And concludes: “The application was granted a project grant of SEK 11.5 million”.
It’s hard to know where to start when describing the National Audit Office’s fresh examination of the General Heritage Fund. The title of the report already says it all: “Money that seeks meaning”.
Because the inheritance fund, which manages funds from Swedes who died without close heirs, has more money than it can give away in a sensible way – the market value in 2022 was SEK 12.3 billion. The result? The fund will be a Klondyke where the gold lies just below the ground surface for anyone to pick at. “Many therefore apply for – and receive – grants for projects with high staffing and large budgets; over SEK 10 million is not unusual,” states the National Audit Office.
The fund becomes a Klondyke where the gold lies just below the ground surface for everyone to claim.
So the worst thing is that money disappears with a lack of control? No, it’s that they are allowed to disappear into criminals. The National Audit Office’s report reveals economic crime, gangs, money laundering and “criminality threatening democracy”: The National Audit Office has also seen “clear indications” of wrongful employment and salaries, as well as fraud in several of the projects that received money.
It is far from the first time that a major player in the trust-based Swedish subsidy machinery is revealed as a target for criminals and cheaters. Far from the only time that multi-million sums – which had been needed for other purposes – were evicted with an appropriately worded application as the only consideration.
“The government is recommended to begin winding down the General Heritage Fund,” states the National Audit Office dryly. If nothing else, it’s about respect for the dead.
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