Ljubljana 25 November 2011

Ivett G Larsson

Ivett.larsson@kammarkollegiet.se

+46-8-700 08 56

Community interpreting in Sweden

2004:

2009:

650 000 interpreted

hours...

… in 120 languages

… in 170 languages

1,2 – 1,5 million interpreted

hours…

State authorization in Sweden since 1976

996 interpreters 1 053 authorizations In 36 languages

202 interpreters 215 court competence in 21 languages

132 interpreters 135 medical competence in 18 languages

403 translators 473 authorizations

245 translators into 28 languages

174 translators from 31 languages

Authorization – general information

• 40 languages

• Application fee: 2 300 SEK (240 EUR)

• Valid for 5 years

Proficiency standards

• Good spoken command of both Swedish and the target language

• Good terminological and factual knowledge within social matters, medical care, labour market, general social insurance and everyday law

• Good interpreting technique

• High degree of information accuracy

• Reasonable length of speech unit

Tests

Umeå

Stockholm

Lund

Göteborg

oral 3h80 %written5h

Proficiency examination - written test

AUTHORIZED

• General background knowledge test: 40-50 questions

• Terminology test: 100 specialist terms to be translated into Swedish

• 60 specialist terms and 40 expressions in context to be translated from Swedish

COURT/MEDICAL

• General background knowledge test: 25 questions in the field of law or medicine

• Terminology test: 100 specialist terms to be translated into Swedish

• 100 specialist terms to be translated from Swedish

Proficiency examination – oral test

AUTHORIZED

• Active interpreting test, at most four role plays

• Oral examination in interpreting technique and professional ethics

COURT/MEDICAL

• Interpreting in a civil suit as well as in a criminal case in court (role play)

• Interpreting in a medical care situation relating to a physical illness/disease and in the treatment of a psychiatric or social-medicine care case (role play)

• Oral examination in specialist background knowledge.

National registers

• Authorized interpreters and translators

• Trained interpreters

National Procurement Services

at Kammarkollegiet, Sweden

Klas EricssonJeanette Hemmingsson

The National Procurement Services• Our task is to supply coordinated framework agreements at National level for

goods and services,

• At National, Regional and Local level whithin the area of ICT & telecom,

• The main objective is to generate savings for the tax-payers,

• Central government authorities should use the framework agreements unless they find other forms of agreements better all in all,

• Activities are financed by fees. The suppliers pay fees in proportion to turn-over. The economic goal is full coverage of costs,

• The total turn-over has been approximately 1,2 billion EUR (10,5 -11 billion SEK) annually.

National Procurement Services Director

Division for ICT-procurement Division for procurement of

Goods and Services Division for Contract

management

Staff Legal Section

Organization

Framework agreements for Interpretation services

• Contract period 2+1+1 years, (new procurement planned to 2012),

• Includes the provision and distribution of: • Authorized interpreters,

• Authorized court interpreters,

• Authorized medical interpreters

• Other interpreters,

• Contracts by county, three suppliers (agencies) per county,

• Call off routine: fixed ranking by county,

• Annual turn-over: approx. 130 MSEK

• Largest users are the Police, Courts, Social insurance office, Public employment service and the Prison and probation service.

Framework agreements for Translation services

• Contract period 2+1+1 years, (new procurement commenced),

• Includes translation services: • Subarea 1 – English

• Subarea 2 – frequent languages

• Subarea 3 – other languages

• Three nationwide suppliers (agencies) per subarea,

• Call off routine: fixed ranking per subarea,

• Annual turn-over: approx. 25 MSEK

• Most requested languages: English, Arabic,

Why framework agreements?

• Important contract areas,

• Great need for services,

• Convenient and time saving for the authorities to call off services through an agency from the framework agreements,

• Quality assured suppliers and services,

• Contracted prices,

Observed general problems

• Lack of certified and qualified interpreters and translators,

• Existing training programs do not respond to needs,

• Authorization is lagging behind in terms of topicality,

• Poor knowledge of the business among users/ contracting authorities,

• Approved interpreter tariff only for assignments in some kind of authorities, e.g. courts,

• Insecure situation for interpreters and translators,

Observed deficiencies in existing agreements • Quality deficiencies –

• texts are not translated correctly, deficient interpretation,• many complaints, inadequate service from agencies,• competence is not utilized, cheaper options are offered customers,

• No follow-up of performance and quality during the contract – • requirements are ineffective, credibility of the NPS reduces,

• Strict ranking – • authorities feel obliged always to call off supplier No. 1 even if they have bad

experiences of its performance,

• Too much emphasis on the price in the procurement - leading to;• suppliers of low capacity and limited experience,• low remuneration to interpreters and translators,

The consequences of poor agreements • The framework agreement is perceived as inadequate –

• bad reputation among contracting authorities, • distrust of agencies, • authorities carry out their own procurements, e.g. the Swedish migration board,• framework agreements undermined,

• Skilled interpreters seeking other jobs, leads to lack of competence among agencies,

• Quality deficiencies can result in threats to legal security, additional administrative work, increased costs,

What do we need consider for the coming contracts? • Opportunities for monitoring and auditing requirements and quality during the contract,

• Possibility of cancellation, quarantine, demotion in rank, etc.

• Fixed interpreter tariff for all assignments, competition only with the agency fee, interpreters will not be affected negatively,

• Interpreters should be able to invoice the customer directly, not via the agency, no uncertainty of their rightful compensation,

• Differentiated reimbursement to the agency – higher skills give higher compensation – incentives to always offer the highest competence and stimulate continuing education,

• Video interpretation, more secure than telephone interpretation, reduced travel time, benefits for the environment,

• Information and training to interpreter users.

Prestudy for the procurement of

translation services Branch comments

• Meeting with the Swedish Association of Professional Translators,

• Meeting with the Federation of Authorised Translators,

• Meeting with the current framework suppliers,

• Survey Mailings to 28 suppliers who are members of the Swedish Association of Professional Translators, 12 responded to the survey

Prestudy for the procurement of translation servicesTo anchor with the contracting authorities

• Reference group meeting,

• Survey mailings to 214 contracting authorities, 92 responded to the survey,

• Telephone meeting with the Social Insurance Agency who has made its own procurement,

• Meeting with the National Police who previously was responsible for the agreement area.

Preparation of tender documents • Collection of statistics. It is important to capture the purchasing

patterns of contracting authorities. The statistics allow for weighting in the tender documents.

• Received statistics have been of varying quality,

• These statistics enable the division of languages,

• What are the most frequent languages ? How many assignments per year called off in each language?

• What are delivery times like? Normal delivery / express delivery, which are used mostly?

• Do authorities call off many short assignments? (texts with less than 2000 words). 90% call off short assignments.

Preparation of tender documents

It is important to set higher demands on the service.

How can we improve the quality of the procurement?

Tangible changes

• Place demands on translators' professional competence,

• Review the possibilities for penalty clauses in cases of poor translation,

• Establish in advance how an order should proceed,

• Review the supplier's ordering procedures, what support systems are available?

Preparation of tender documents

• Is it possible to request specific translators?

• What is the supplier's procedures for ensuring the quality of the assignments?

• Review the requirements for secrecy, then authorities documents are to be affected by confidentiality.

• How does the the supplier work with the terminology? The translator must have the ability to translate in different terminologies, understand the terminology that is customary in the language and in the authority.

Preparation of tender documents

• What audit options should be included?

• With experience from previous agreements it is of great importance to make specific monitoring, in addition to the continuous monitoring, of selected requirements in order to maintain a high level of quality throughout the contract period,

• What controls should be made before delivery of the translated material is made to a customer?

Preparation of tender documents

• If ranking is selected, what legal possibilities are there to bypass the ranking?

• Should we put turnover requirements on the supplier? This has been appealed to the Administrative Court on several occasions.

Contact information

• Kammarkollegiet (The Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency) www.kammarkollegiet.se +46 8 7000 800

• Ivett G Larsson, ivett.larsson@kammarkollegiet.se

• Jonas Lembke, jonas.lembke@kammarkollegiet.se

• Information about the National Procurement Services framework agreements can be found on our webb-site www.avropa.se.

• Klas Ericsson, klas.ericsson@kammarkollegiet.se

• Jeanette Hemmingsson, jeanette.hemmingsson@kammarkollegiet.se