National Government Service Centre coordinates and streamlines agency administration
The new government agency, the National Government Service Centre, opened its doors to the public on 1 June 2012. The National Government Service Centre offers administrative support services to other government agencies.
The aim is to achieve higher productivity, lower costs for joint investments and more consistent quality for the central government as a whole. The establishment of the Service Centre will make it easier for the leadership of each agency to focus on its core activities and secure its skills supply in times when large numbers of people are retiring.
The reform is necessary so that the agencies are able to do more using less resources.
This is the National Government Service Centre
The National Government Service Centre is a new government agency. It is built on parts of the operational support units of the Swedish Tax Agency and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. The Service Centre's production is located in Gävle and Östersund. At start up, the Service Centre has some 170 full-time staff.
Initially, the Service Centre will offer basic services within three areas: salary administration, financial administration and eCommerce. It will also offer standardised optional and special services.
The Service Centre is managed by a governing board which has full responsibility, and is headed by a Director-General. The Government has appointed Stig Jönsson as acting Director-General, and Birgitta Böhlin as chair of the board.
The activities of the new agency are to be fully financed by fees from the agencies that have an agreement with the Service Centre.
What the reform means for the agencies
The role of the agencies will change. From having previously been providers of administrative services, they will now be purchasers. The agencies' new role will be more of a strictly strategic nature.
After entering into an agreement with the National Government Service Centre, the agencies will continue to be responsible for their overall activities in relation to the Government, and for their internal management and monitoring.
The National Government Service Centre will be responsible for delivery of the relevant services in accordance with the agreement concluded with the Service Centre.
It is up to the agencies themselves to decide whether or not they want to enter into an agreement with the National Government Service Centre.
However, for the reform to be profitable, an agreement must be reached with one quarter of all the agencies by the end of 2015. If not enough agencies enter into agreements with the Service Centre, the Government will take further action. The agencies will then have to prove that they manage their administrative activities at least as efficiently on their own.
Why the Government is implementing the reform
The initiative to set up the National Government Service Centre comes from the Government Bill Public administration for democracy, participation and growth (2009/10:175). The Bill gives the following as the overall objective for administrative policy:
The aim of gathering routine central government administrative activities within one government agency is to increase efficiency, reduce total central government costs and, at the same time, increase quality or maintain it at the previous level.
The reform allows the central government administration to benefit from economies of scale in that the Service Centre brings together and standardises the agencies administration. Each agency can focus on its core activities.
At the same time, administration will be the core activity of the new National Government Service Centre.
Tasks open to competition
The National Government Service Centre is not to provide such services that private sector actors can provide more cost-effectively and with maintained or increased quality. From the outset, the Service Centre procures all IT support on the market.
The next step is to identify which parts of the standardised core activities can be outsourced to private sector actors. In this way, the Service Centre will be a driving force for creating a competitive market for central government administrative services.
