On Thursday, the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) found that Anna Kinberg Batra had not respected the requirements of objectivity and impartiality in the Instrument of Government during three recruitments to the County Administrative Board in Stockholm.
You could say that she has broken the Instrument of Government quite blatantly, says Olle Lundin, professor of administrative law at Uppsala University.
Among other things, the Instrument of Government requires that the best candidates be appointed during recruitments within the state, which requires an open announcement, which should be the norm, explains Olle Lundin.
A note in a reception is not that. Moreover, she has made herself guilty of bias as she was a personal friend of one of those recruited. Bias breaks the requirement of impartiality in the Instrument of Government, he says.
"Should not be an authority head"
However, there have been previous cases where similar things have happened within the public administration.
The National Audit Office made a similar recruitment. There, they put up a note in the reception, behind a locked door, too. But in this case, it's quite flagrant with three cases. Moreover, she fired her county director-general before that, i.e., the person who is supposed to keep track of the governor doing the right thing.
Anna Kinberg Batra announced on Thursday that she takes the criticism from the JO to heart and explained to Aftonbladet that she "had been in too much of a hurry" during the recruitments.
She doesn't seem to understand the seriousness of what she has done. It indicates that one should not be an authority head if one completely disregards our Constitution, says Olle Lundin.
Further investigations
It is up to the government to decide whether the governor has continued confidence or not. The National Audit Office has also initiated an investigation into Kinberg Batra, in this case, regarding how the county director-general Åsa Ryding was dismissed from her job. Olle Lundin sees it as likely that the government will await the result of that investigation as well.
I won't be surprised if she gets to stay. If you have a party membership, you usually sit a bit more securely. We saw that, among other things, with Dan Eliasson, who was spinning around among authorities like a whirlwind.
