At the beginning of July, Birgitta Kristersson accompanied Ed on the state flight when husband Ulf Kristersson (M) was to meet US President Joe Biden in Washington DC. She was also with her husband in Helsinki the same month. As she lacked a formal assignment on the trip, the Prime Minister must, according to the rules, pay for her. The cost must correspond to the full price for a similar trip by scheduled flight and 25 percent of the hotel costs must be paid privately.
In total, these are private costs of nearly SEK 16,000 that were not deducted from Kristersson’s monthly fee in connection with the trips.
Mission review has requested all email exchanges at the Cabinet Committee regarding Mrs. Kristersson’s trips to Finland and the USA – but the government has refused the request. Internal emails between officials at the Government Office are not public documents, they say.
“A misunderstanding”
Ulf Kristersson does not want to be interviewed about the trips. Instead, Ministerial Councilor Hans Bäck replies that it is “a misunderstanding between officials”. The fact that deductions were not made from Kristersson’s fee was only discovered after the Task Review asked questions about the trips.
– Yes it is true. Then we established that the deduction had not been made in the system, says Ministerial Councilor Hans Bäck.
New control function
The Prime Minister has provided correct information, Bäck believes, and says that controls must now be introduced so that the adjustment of the fee will go correctly in the future.
Ulf Kristersson’s press secretary writes in an email that the Prime Minister has followed the existing procedures. On November 24, just over four months after the trip to the USA, a deduction of almost SEK 16,000 was made for flights and hotels in the USA and Finland.