Acquisition of Defence Materiel and investments of other Government Agencies

This report compares the investments of the Swedish Armed Forces, primarily in defence equipment, with the investments of other Swedish public agencies. Through this comparison, it becomes apparent that the Swedish Transport Administration is the agency with which the most parallels can be drawn. The Swedish Transport Administration is the largest investor among the public agencies, followed by the Armed Forces. Most other agencies make relatively modest investments in relation to the size of their operations. In addition to the Transport Administration, the report also presents information about the investments of a selected number of other agencies. The Armed Forces make investments indirectly through an intermediary, the procuring agency, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, instead of directly from the suppliers, as would most other agencies. The comparison points to planning, financing and decision making, as areas where the methods and experiences of the Transport Administration could be of value to the Armed Forces. A good example would be improving financial flexibility by increasing the Armed Forces' possibility of transferring budgetary allocations means in between years, and by allowing the Armed Forces to access other sources of financing in addition to budgetary allocations. The Transport Administrations investment planning procedures has many aspects worthy of consideration by the Armed Forces. Not least, as regards long-term forward planning and the dialog between agency and ministry, a lot can be learned from the Transport Administration and its planning procedures. The Transport Administrations often bases its decisions on calculations of public benefit, cost benefit analysis, that take both effects and costs into account. Both the Transport Administration and the Armed Forces feel that the automatic increases in allocated means, intended to compensate the agencies for price and cost changes, are insufficient.