The Swedish Public Employment Service currently works in several IT systems that are described as outdated and risky.

For that reason, a completely new decision and case management system, BÄR, has been developed since 2019.

But the development has been fraught with problems and delays, SVT's review shows.

The first goal was that the majority of cases would have been transferred to BÄR already in 2020. But that goal is still far away.

At the end of 2021, only one-fifth of the cases in BÄR were handled.

Underestimated challenges

Arbetsförmedlingen's IT director Krister Dackland explains in written answers to SVT that there are several explanations for the delays.

On the one hand, the agency's large staff reductions and the corona pandemic - but also underestimations of "the challenge of defining national general processes" and "of the challenge of simultaneously making a comprehensive technology shift and a comprehensive business process shift, in terms of skills and culture, both in IT and in other operations."

During the autumn, BÄR was reviewed by the Swedish Public Employment Service's internal audit.

The audit report will be public on Thursday and will, according to SVT's experience, contain sharp criticism of the implementation of BÄR.

Audited by auditors

According to SVT's sources, the investment has been perceived as difficult to overview, both in terms of cost and time.

Until the turn of the year, BÄR was estimated to have cost 343 million, but now there is a concern that the final bill could end up over one billion kronor.

There is also criticism that the IT department has not sufficiently allowed the rest of the organization to be involved in the development work.

Krister Dackland emphasizes in a comment that BÄR will need to be developed as long as the business develops and the conditions change.

“We have a budget of approximately SEK 300 million / year for IT development, of which just over a third goes to BÄR.

Of course, the audit from the internal audit is important.

It is part of our constant improvement work.

I share a lot of the criticism and since I came in as the new IT manager a year ago, we have worked intensively to steer the development work ".

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