The Allergy and Asthma Federation (Allergia-, Iho- ja Astmaliitto) of Finland has inflated its costs and modified employee working hour records in order to receive the largest possible subsidies from state gambling monopoly Veikkaus, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
The activities of the health organisation were revealed during a routine inspection carried out last year by the Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (Stea), which manages the funding from Veikkaus gaming revenue.
Annually, Stea distributes approximately 360 million euros in Veikkaus funds to non-profit organisations and projects that promote health and wellbeing.
In 2018, grants worth approximately 2.3 million euros were given to the Allergy and Asthma Federation.
Helsingin Sanomat also reported that according to the audit, the Allergy and Asthma Federation's former CEO used the organisation's credit card to buy alcohol and to cover the cost of taxi rides at night, among other things.
According to auditors, the activities of the federation were calculated and intentional. More than 770,000 euros have been recovered from the 2018 grants, which has been the largest amount to be recovered in recent years.
Due to the recovery, the Allergy and Asthma Federation started cooperation negotiations at the end of last year.
Kristian Seemer, Stea's chief auditor said this kind of case is very rare. According to Seemer, all other grants received by the Allergy and Asthma Federation will now also be inspected to see if there have been any other discrepancies.
"We expect to find discrepancies also from 2017 and 2019," Seemer said in a radio interview on Friday.
The Helsinki Police Department confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat that an official request for an investigation had been made, but did not comment on the current status of the investigation.