The board of directors of the state-owned road construction and infrastructure company Destia resigned because it felt that it had failed in the supervision of the activities of the company’s former CEO Jukka Laaksovirta.
Laaksovirta is under police investigation, suspected of aggravated fraud and forgery.
Only one page of the extensive inspection report on Laaksovirta’s activities was made public yesterday. It indicated that Destia’s former CEO had often exceeded his authority.
Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party), who is the government minister responsible for issues related to state ownership of companies, denies that he ordered the board to disband, as had been claimed on Wednesday.
“It was a decision that the board made on its own, but in my opinion it was necessary”, he said.
Häkämies said that in response to the furore over Destia, the Ownership Steering Department of the Prime Minister’s Office has sent state-owned companies a letter, saying that there should be a mechanism in the companies that would allow employees to blow the whistle on suspicions of criminal wrongdoing or unethical conduct by management.
Jukka Laaksovirta was appointed to head the newly-formed Destia in December 2007.
In May last year a current affairs programme on TV-1 of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) reported that Laaksovirta had signed vague consultation contracts in Destia’s name. Laaksovirta resigned after the allegations were made public.
