On the basis of the NAOF’s annual report, the Parliament Audit Committee highlighted the need to improve risk management of central government without delay.

NAOF and the Finnish Risk Management Association (SRHY) arranged the seminar ‘Towards dynamic risk management’ on 7 February. The event was held in Pikkuparlamentti in Helsinki and it attracted nearly 70 risk-management experts from the private and public sectors.

The Scientific Council serves as a network of experts from which the National Audit Office can request opinions, comments and training in matters concerning the development and assessment of the audit, evaluation and monitoring of central government finances.

NAOF assesses that the Government is now better placed to achieve the targets that it has set for the parliamentary term. According to economic forecasts, most of the targets for general government finances set by the Government may now be achieved as the Finnish economy is picking up after a long period of slow growth.

According to a recent NAOF survey, the economic forecasts prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which are used as a basis for the state budget, give the most accurate picture of future economic trends. Their accuracy was on a par with those produced by the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (Etla). The review was contained in the latest assessment carried out by Fiscal Policy Evaluation, which covered the Ministry of Finance's economic forecasts.

The National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) has examined how business executives view Finland as an investment environment. The purpose was to find out why Finnish economic growth remains slow even though the country ranks high in international competitiveness comparisons. The business executives, experts and government officials interviewed by NAOF listed a number of proposals for improving the investment environment. They included streamlining of permit processes and public contracts, better education and training paths, and a higher status for marketing.

Assisted voluntary return is the primary option for persons who have sought international protection but whose asylum application has been rejected. Instead of cash assistance, in-kind assistance that takes account of the personal needs and the situation in the country of return could be more effective in encouraging asylum seekers to return home voluntarily, as it would provide the returnee with better and more stable opportunities to re-integrate into their home country.

One of the objectives of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s Government is to make Finland a pioneer in cleantech. In its audit, the National Audit Office assessed how well the policy objectives set for cleantech acquisitions have been achieved and how the related procurement process could be further developed. So far, the policy objectives have not yet been achieved.

According to the budget, the value of the Government’s fixed assets and other tangible assets is some EUR 20 billion. The Government does not have any standardised instructions on asset lifecycle management or any lifecycle cost calculation model. However, regulations state that the assets must be used in a profitable manner, which also means that the benefits and costs arising from the assets must be managed during their lifecycle. Agencies have also prepared their own instructions and calculation models to manage the lifecycle of their assets.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs submitted Finland’s first Development Policy Results Report to Parlia-ment in November 2018. The report presents results of Finland’s development policy and development cooperation that were reported between 2015 and 2018. The National Audit Office has regularly audited Finland’s development cooperation for many years. The audits have emphasised, for example, the signif-icance of assessing the impacts of development cooperation, as well as the transparency and coordina-tion of assistance allocated to development cooperation.

Central government finances are often compared to the finances of an enterprise or a household. When there is a warning on indebtedness, the Government is advised to do what a family would do: to use as little money as possible. There are plenty of interesting differences between the finances of a state and a private enterprise, however. The differences become clear when you study the operations and the operating logic from the outside.

The Finnish Bioeconomy Strategy (“Sustainable growth from bioeconomy”) was drafted between 2012 and 2014 in a project launched by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Last September, we assessed the preparation of the strategy. As the auditors, we were impressed by the extensive, successful cooperation between administration, stakeholders and citizens during the preparation process.