Two officials from Malmö city’s security department are at a cocktail bar in London. They are offered drinks with names like “Porn Star” and “Gloria Sour” and eat “Squeezy Cheesy Fries”. The person responsible for the bill is a salesperson at one of the world’s largest security companies, Securitas – the expenses are approved by a senior manager.
The party evening is one more in a series of occasions in a large bribery scandal that the Uppdrag review was previously able to reveal in connection with Securitas winning tenders in the city of Malmö to the value of 30 million kroner.
See the review: Securitas and the cover-up
After the revelation, Securitas fired two key people, reported them to the police and promised zero tolerance for corruption. In autumn 2022, the company won a new procurement in Malmö with the promise that everyone involved in the mess had been cleaned out.
Blackout
But through emails, text messages and chats, Uppdrag ganskning can now show that five managers, who still work at Securitas today, knew about the secret relationships with the two Malmö city officials.
Three of the managers have themselves been involved when officials have been corrupted in bars and restaurants.
In an email, a deputy head of department writes about being a “Sugar daddy” to the municipal officials at the same time as a municipal procurement has just been completed.
“Thorough internal investigation”
But when Uppdrag gränskning interviews Securita’s acting communications manager, crisis consultant Jessica Bissmark, she says she doesn’t know about the managers’ involvement.
– We have conducted a solid and thorough internal investigation, it showed that there were no other employees who were involved in this.
After the interview, Securitas apologizes for not providing correct information earlier and refers to the “human factor and misunderstandings”.
Review the contract
Then Securitas changes its version. The managers who were involved in the bribery scandal have, according to the company, been punished with “warnings and serious corrective talks”.
But the new information has also been withheld from the city of Malmö for over two years, which will now once again review the contract with Securitas.
– That deal was based on Securitas having cleaned house. They have not lived up to the promises they gave us, says Per-Erik Ebbeståhl, security director at Malmö city.
In May 2022, the Uppdrag review revealed that two key people at Securitas, a salesperson and a high-ranking manager, had been involved in bribes in connection with a procurement in the city of Malmö.
Two municipal officials in Malmö allowed themselves to be invited to a pub and a trip to London.
After the disclosure, the salesperson and the manager were fired. Securitas filed a police report and set up an investigation to find out, among other things, whether the problems were more extensive.
Securitas did not make the internal investigation public, but communicated externally that no one other than the two people who had been fired had been involved.
The two civil servants at the city of Malmö also had to leave their jobs.
The police launched a preliminary investigation into bribery. The salesperson at Securitas and one of the officials in Malmö admitted and received penalty orders of 50 daily fines each, which meant fines of SEK 32,500 and SEK 27,500, respectively.
The other Malmö official denied wrongdoing, which led to prosecution and trial. He was sentenced in the district court for accepting bribes on two occasions to 40 daily fines, a fine of SEK 2,000, but has appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeal.
He believes that he was deceived by his colleague and the “salesman” at Securitas. He perceived the invitations as part of a friendship with the “seller”.