Back in February the daily Helsingin Sanomat picked up the story of a 700,000-euro report on future competitiveness commissioned by the government of philosopher-consultant Pekka Himanen without a public tender.
The procedure drew immediate criticism from many quarters, prompting a hearing by Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee into the legality of Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen’s actions in ordering the report without resorting to established tendering procedures.
Chancellor: Good governance requires openness
The Committee eventually cleared the PM of any wrongdoing in the matter. The Parliament – where the Katainen coalition enjoys a majority -- also later decided not to press charges against the PM over the case.
In a statement issued Friday on the case Chancellor of Justice Jaakko Jonkka said that the principles of good governance required that even projects of this nature be treated openly. He said that openness in such cases is upheld by introducing a competitive bidding process.
At the time that the story broke, the Prime Minister’s office said that it was felt that the research project wasn’t suited to existing procurement procedures.
Rap on the knuckles for Academy of Finland
The Chancellor also rapped one of the financiers – the Academy of Finland, which provides funding for scientific research – for abandoning its established procedures in bankrolling the report.
Jonkka noted that in the case of the Himanen report the Academy did not define its criteria for granting funding and the basis for a funding decision, as is normally the case.
Ten complaints from the public opened the door for the Chancellor to consider and pronounce on the case. Although an ultimate guardian of Finnish law, he was prevented from offering an opinion by the fact that the Parliament had already decided the case.