Mistake in Excel Document Leads to Doubled Municipal Budget Deficit

Initially, the municipality was thought to be 50 million in the red, but it turned out to be an error – the actual deficit was 100 million. An error in an Excel document had extensive consequences for the residents of Nybro, especially the youngest and oldest.

One evening in December, municipal councilor Tobias Fagergård (S) received a phone call while he was driving home. The news was that there must have been a miscalculation, and the municipality’s budget was actually 100 million in the red, not just 50 million.

The figure came as a shock to both Fagergård and the rest of the municipal leadership, and the chief financial officer worked all weekend to try to figure out what had gone wrong. Eventually, they found it – an error in an Excel document had caused costs not to be accounted for. This small mistake had significant consequences and affected the municipality’s entire operation.

“It was something none of us could have foreseen,” Fagergård told Barometern.

Specifically, in an Excel sheet with the budget for different years, an old amount from the previous year was entered into a cell. The cost increases were not included, resulting in areas such as schools, elderly care, and social services receiving more money than the municipality actually had.

According to CFO Evelina Widell, they did not account for value increases, index increases in inflation, rent, groceries, and salary increases.

“Yes, between 2022 and 2023. So, we lose x number of millions overall. And we would have seen… If we had the correct figures from 2023 to 2024, we would have seen that we cannot allocate this much money to the committees. Because it doesn’t add up at the bottom line,” she told the newspaper.

No Scapegoats

When asked whose fault it was, the response from municipal manager Christer Kratz was that they were not looking for any scapegoats; instead, the focus is on getting it right in the future.

Possible reasons pointed out include a chaotic period where inflation suddenly soared and many new people in the municipal leadership.

Borrowed 150 Million

Even before the harsh economic reality caught up, the budget was already under significant pressure, and to cover the expenses, the municipality borrowed 150 million kronor – based on the incorrect figures.

After the shocking news, cost-cutting measures have been implemented – the Stallgården nursing home in Orrefors will be closed, the social services are tasked with cutting expensive placements of children and young people in, for example, residential care homes, three preschools will be shut down, support for LSS and disability support will be reduced by ten million kronor, and 310 hectares of forest will be sold.