Finland given a workover in Transparency International corruption report

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The Berlin-Based Transparency International released its Global Corruption Report for 2009 at the end of last week, and a good many Finns have been looking forward to the event with mixed feelings, wondering what TI would make of the recent scandals over election funding or the ongoing furore over arms manufacturer Patria's alleged bribery in export deals.
      Both subjects get a workout in the report, the Finnish section of which is linked below.
     
Finland had previously enjoyed a squeaky-clean reputation at the head of the Index that many felt was unjustified by the facts on the ground, and so the news that we slipped down to 5th (out of 180 countries, scoring 9.0 out of a possible 10) on the Corruption Perceptions Index last September probably came as no great surprise, though the story was pushed somewhat into the background by the Kauhajoki school shootings that occurred on the same day.
      Some years ago the country gained a straight ten, but as an earlier Helsingin Sanomat article pointed out, Finland has its own subtle forms of corruption that many simply do not recognise.
     
Transparency International notes in its comments on Finland that:
      "Businesspeople in Finland find dealings with other businesspeople more prone to corruption than dealings with the authorities. The report identifies the construction and manufacturing sectors as being particularly problematic. Although the overall percentages were not especially high, it is notable that the private sector appeared to be much more prone to corruption than the public: only 1% of respondents claimed to have faced bribery in dealings with the authorities, yet 8% of business leaders from the construction sector and 5% of business leaders from the manufacturing sector reported experiencing bribery in relations with other companies."
      State-owned companies - which have been much in the public eye of late - are also singled out for attention:
      "the government should seriously consider obliging state-owned companies to adopt and follow ethical codes of conduct, which is not currently the case", argues Transparency International.
     
On the political front, the report calls on the government "to improve transparency in ‘contributions by third parties’ (e.g. interest groups or political education foundations) and ‘to ensure proper substantial supervision.….of the accounts of political parties and expenses linked to electoral campaigns’.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish corruption: subtle, but by no means non-existent (4.8.2009)
  Finland again among least corrupt countries - in Russia corruption runs rampant (27.9.2007)

Links:
  Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009
  GCR 2009: Finland (.pdf file, scroll to page 319)

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