Embezzlement discovered at Parliament’s sports club

Sloppy auditing allegedly allowed civil servant to abscond with tens of thousands of euros over 7 years

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The Finnish Parliament was shocked on Tuesday when it was reported that at least EUR 70,000 had been embezzled from the Parliament’s sports club. The club’s annual budget is just EUR 60,000.
      The embezzling activities by an ordinary Parliamentary civil servant continued for seven years without anybody noticing.
      Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the financial statements of the club have been falsified. The final accounts fit onto one sheet of paper, and were signed by the club’s auditors.
     
The suspect is believed to have succeeded in siphoning funds from the club for years.
      Speaker of Parliament Sauli Niinistö was shocked that none of the MPs noticed that anything was wrong. “The club has an executive. The auditors were Members of Parliament”, he said.
      The auditors were Jukka Gustafsson (SDP) and Arto Satonen (Nat. Coalition Party). “We should have looked more closely”, Gustafsson acknowledged.
      “I have no answers”, said an anguished Niinistö. He said that all clubs within Parliament should “check their papers”. Niinistö put a freeze on money for Parliamentary clubs already several years ago.
     
The Speaker has also had to deal with the farcical wine affair linked with Parliament’s centennial celebrations, which led to compensation of EUR 60,000.
      “These are the kinds of rascals that we have here”, he said.
      The wines were tasted and ordered by the highest-ranking Parliamentary civil servant, along with a former Speaker of Parliament.
      “A stone building like this will take quite a bit. Very solidly built”, Niinistö said.
      He added that no club within Parliament will be granted money without supervision. Niinistö did not want to say if the most recent flap would affect the jobs of any civil servants - other than that of the suspected embezzler, who has already resigned.
     
The embezzlement was revealed when the funds of the sports club unexpectedly ran out.
      Matti Saarinen (SDP), the chairman of the sports club, called the matter “shocking”.
      “There was more trust than control”, he said. Saarinen is the chairman of Parliament’s auditors, which makes the event even more embarrassing.
      Now he says that “the inspection net needs to be tightened”.
      The top civil servant of Parliament, Secretary-General Seppo Tiitinen, said that the embezzlement is a “shocking and sad event”.
      Tiitinen says that the matter will be brought before the police, and the audit conducted by the MPs will be examined by officials.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Parliament receives huge bill for centennial wines (29.9.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat