Swedish charity pays millions to telemarketer
Published: 27 Oct 10 09:13 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/29844/20101027/
A national association dealing with child custody issues paid over 80 percent in overhead costs totalling nearly 34 million kronor ($5 million) to a telemarketing company from the donations it received from two campaigns last year.
- Swedes perform poorly in charitable giving survey (10 Sep 10)
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However, nearly 34 million kronor in contributions went to a telemarketing company, according to an investigative report SVT's Uppdrag Granskning programme published on its website on Wednesday.
The programme will air a report about its investigation on Wednesday evening.
The agreement between the agency and Pool Media gives Pool 800 kronor for every 1,000 kronor donated, the report said.
The agreement with the telemarketing company is not only very expensive for the agency, it is also very long, extending to 2027.
Neither Pool Media CEO Morgan Falk nor Hem och Skola Chairman Ronny Kanstrup were willing to discuss the details of the contract with SVT.
In an application for state subsidies, the agency stated it has 40,000 members, of whom at least half are students or parents. The large number of reported members resulted in the organisation receiving 675,000 kronor in state subsidies last year.
However, the organisation actually has about only 3,900 members. The remainder that are reported as members are companies, municipalities and counties that donated money to its campaigns, according to the report.
According to Swedish Collection Control, which controls collections to other charitable organisations, including BRIS (Barnens Rätt i Samhället) and Save the Children, the rule is that at least 75 percent of the money should go back to the organisation.
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Of course they weren't interested in discussing the details. It is an obvious corruption kickback scheme between Mr. Kanstrup and Mr. Falk. Both men will walk away from all of this rich and happy, assuming the Swedish legal system performs as usual.
According to the information in this article the organisation boasts of 40,000 members whereas its only has 3,900 members. Well, this is not the first time that a Swedish organisation "blows up" the number of its members in order to get subsidies. In the late 1970's the social democratic youth organisation, SSU, filled its membership lists with the names of their pets, their grandparents etc - in order to get more money from the state.
Also, congrats Hem och Skola and Pool Media to a very lucrative and well negociated contract. The contract must have been negociated by your most brilliant minds!
Ruby Harrold-Claesson
Lawyer
President of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights
www.nkmr.org
It's the Big Business 'Something-for-Nuthin' model. This isn't real business, which offers a product or service and relies on satisfied customers to make a living. It's a scam, since it is not transparent. If it's 'legal' in the sense that it's not strictly against the law, then there is something very wrong with law-making. Don't know how you're set in Sweden these days, but folks in the UK have had a bellyful of the 'New Labour/Thatcherite/Clintonite/Bushite' model of 'being extremely relaxed about people becoming filthy rich' (as Lord Mandelson put it). He added 'provided they pay their taxes', as he was duty-bound to say, but didn't seem particularly eager to propose (or fund) methods of making sure they did so. The astonishing situation, politically, is that we now have a Conservative-Liberal coalition govt that is way to the left of the previous Labout govt in what it actually does. Labels don't mean a thing. Give 'em hell, whoever they say they are. We've all surely had enough of these jokers.
at last a legal form of paedophilia! and one can be dickless and still pull it off!