There are clear indications that government grants awarded to student associations go to other purposes than public education, according to a new report from the National Audit Office.
According to the review, around 25 study circles have spent money on private purchases such as food, fuel and compensation for rent.
The National Audit Office writes that there are "shortcomings at all levels" and the control system that is in place today does not catch all errors.
- It is completely reprehensible that the money has gone to private consumption.
It has never been allowed and never been okay.
There are no gray areas, says David Samuelsson, secretary general at the Student Union.
Has changed his way of working
The industry organization Studieförbunden, which gathers ten student associations, believes that they have already started work on developing the control.
- All money that comes from the state to the student unions must go to public education.
And we have to work even harder on that going forward, says David Samuelsson at the Student Union.
The work began after the student unions themselves, in 2019, discovered inaccuracies.
Today, the ten student associations run their registers together and have introduced digital attendance reporting to overcome the problems, says Samuelsson.
He also says that the measures, according to the Police and the Ecocrime Authority, have yielded results.
"The assessment lands crookedly"
But they also write that it is "special" that the National Audit Office audits organizations based on ideas, because they normally audit authorities.
They therefore believe that certain assessments land skewed, when organizers are assessed in the same way as authorities.
- Study associations are measured with a yardstick made for authorities.
Study associations are not authorities and should not be authorities, but are organisations, says Samuelsson.