Finland's process of drafting legislation is rushed and inflexible, according to civil servants. In an Yle survey many officials complained about a heavy workload, inflexible goals and rushed timetables as factors that negatively impact the quality of their work.
Politicians are too set on certain solutions regardless of the evidence, according to some respondents, and Minister of Local Government Anu Vehviläinen agrees that the government has itself to blame.
"When the government programme involves a great number of spearhead projects and when reforms need to be hammered out as early as possible, things tend to get congested," Vehviläinen says. "We as ministers should look in the mirror and be able to work in more efficient phases."
Greater openness
The minister says she will help straighten out bill drafting processes by bringing in outside help in the form of interest groups and experts prior to official consultation rounds. As it stands, a bill is often very near its final form by the time it is published and sent out for comments from interested parties.
That has to change, says Vehviläinen.
"We made the decision a few weeks ago to start developing the new Information Management Act on an open basis, listening to interest groups at the very beginning as opposed to postponing that point of view until the consultation," she says.
That call to outside experts answers a growing call, and other measures are also in the works to make this more systematic. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice have jointly announced that they will hold a meeting to ascertain how best to utilise the know-how of outside experts in preparing legislation and assessing the impact of governmental decision-making.
Critique
The invitation will be sent to the Bank of Finland, social security organisation Kela, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, the Institute for Economic Research and the National Audit Office of Finland.
The various organisations are convening as a reaction to the critique recently posed by the Prime Minister's Office's new legislative assessment council.
The Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis, as it is called, has issued a number of statements urging ministries to consult outside experts in bill drafting when necessary.
The Council has found, for instance, that bill drafts may lack specific euro-denominated impact assessments entirely.