Procuring a service you did not know you needed.

A factor that is often overlooked is how much work is in practice shifted onto the contracting authority. A low fee is often combined with high demands for internal involvement, which leads to both a higher total cost and lower quality. Ask the supplier to set out how many hours are required from the contracting authority, which tasks are included, and how the method minimises the internal workload. An established way to make this measurable is to state that a contractual penalty applies if the actual time required exceeds what the tenderer has stated.

A procurement should not leave it unclear who is responsible for data extraction. When the supplier extracts, structures and quality-assures the data itself, this reduces the risk of errors, saves time and ensures that the whole chain of analysis is reviewed as one. If the tenderer instead assumes that the contracting authority will carry out parts of the work, this should be clear from the tender. It should also count against the tender in the evaluation, since it increases both costs and risks for the contracting authority.

For this type of service it is often both efficient and legally sound for the contracting authority to set the fee level in advance, for example through a fixed commission rate. The market has shown that levels of around a quarter of the amount recovered are established and accepted. When price is neutralised, price wars are avoided, the incentive to promise more than can be delivered disappears, and competition moves to method, experience and the ability to deliver.

Since quality is largely decided by method, experience and actual working processes, procurement of retrospective analyses is well suited to procedures where dialogue and the development of tenders are allowed. Above the EU threshold value, the authority can benefit from using the negotiated procedure or competitive dialogue. Below the threshold value, the same possibility exists by making negotiation an integrated part of the process. Such procedures give the procurer better tools to identify suppliers that really have the capacity and independence to deliver a result with real effect.

Amount limits and threshold values are set by the Swedish Government and the EU and change over time. The information on this page was correct when last checked on 4 November 2026. Always verify current amounts with the National Agency for Public Procurement (opens in a new tab) before making a decision.

The assignments usually involve detailed information about supplier relationships, payment flows, contracts and internal procedures. This information is often business-critical and may be subject to confidentiality. The contracting authority should require the supplier to have a documented way of working with information security. That means that all processing and storage takes place within the EU under applicable EU law, that the supplier is not subject to legislation that can force disclosure to authorities in third countries, and clarity on how access is controlled and how material is deleted or returned after the assignment has ended.