Should government agencies issue sustainability reports? (2009:17)

The Swedish Agency for Public Management has been assigned by the Ministry of Finance to analyse the scope for, and the implications and added value of, imposing on Sweden’s public administration a sustainability reporting requirement according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) model. In 2008 the Swedish Government made state-owned enterprises subject to a corresponding requirement. The GRI model is an international system for reporting businesses’ economic, social and environmental impact on society.

The overall assessment made by the Agency for Public Management is that the current reporting system should not be replaced by the GRI model, since the value added thereby would not outweigh the substantial costs and information losses that would arise for individual agencies and public administration as a whole. The Agency’s view is that if the Government were to introduce the GRI model as a supplementary requirement, over and above existing reports that government agencies are required to issue, the costs to Sweden’s public administration would amount to at least SEK 100 million a year; costs of the existing reporting requirements are unknown. Moreover, in the Agency’s opinion, adapting the GRI requirements to Swedish public agencies’ activities would be an extensive and costly task.

The Government’s and Government Offices’ value added by reporting in line with the GRI model, in relation to the agencies’ existing reports, has been estimated. This analysis shows that in the economic and environmental spheres, well-established reporting systems already exist. The value added by the GRI model in these areas would serve primarily as an inspiration for developing existing reporting requirements further, in the direction of greater performance orientation. In the sphere of social security, on the other hand, the GRI model could boost added value since there is currently no coherent reporting system in this area.

The Agency’s analysis also shows that the GRI model has not been adapted to public-sector activities. Instead, it has been developed to give external stakeholders access to information about global companies that operate in a market. The model is used as one means of establishing market confidence in these companies. Many of the indicators included in the model are therefore not relevant to Swedish public agencies. The Agency’s assessment in a comparison of the GRI model with existing reports is that a changeover to the GRI model could result in substantial information losses.

The Agency’s analysis also shows that, in the Swedish Government Offices, there is no express demand for GRI reports from government agencies. The Government Offices are considered to have limited capacity for receiving such reports while, at the same time, a general effort is under way to reduce the overall reporting requirements to which the agencies are subject. Finally, the Agency for Public Management is of the opinion that the GRI model is a weak tool for governing and monitoring individual agencies, since the reporting is unconnected with the agencies’ remits or objectives.