Prime Minister and Chancellor of Justice disagree on conflict of interest

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) was especially emphatic on Thursday when he expressed his view that receiving election campaign contributions does not cause an “automatic” conflict of interest for a minister, parliamentarian, or local councillor in discussing matters involving the donor.
      He also said that being involved with a foundation does not establish a conflict of interest.
      The issue has been raised in connection with Vanhanen's involvement in authorising a grant from the Finnish Slot Machine Association for a foundation that has contributed to Vanhanen's election campaigns.
     
Vanhanen said at a press conference on Thursday that he had discussed the issue of conflicts of interest in 2004 with Chancellor of Justice Paavo Nikula soon after receiving a proposal for a grant from the Finnish Slot Machine Association (RAY) to the Nuorisosäätiö youth housing foundation.
      Now retired, Nikula does not recall having such a conversation with Vanhanen. However, he has had some lapses of memory since suffering a cerebral haemorrhage in 2007.
     
Nikula’s successor Jaakko Jonkka had a different view on the matter on Thursday, saying that a government minister is in a different legal position with respect to conflicts of interest than a Member of Parliament.
      “The idea that [campaign funding] does not automatically establish a conflict of interest applies to Members of Parliament.”
     
Vanhanen said that he had asked about conflict of interest in 2004 because matters involving Nuorisosäätiö were “a big issue” for him. Vanhanen had, for all practical purposes, created the youth housing system while serving as chairman of the foundation.
      Nuorisosäätiö supported Vanhanen with small amounts of money in elections before 2003, and contributed about EUR 20,000 in connection with his Presidential election campaign of 2006. Vanhanen says that he first heard of this support last summer.
     
On Thursday Vanhanen repeated his view that he had no information of the reports of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
      “If there is an investigation, officials will certainly announce it. In a state where the rule of law prevails, an interested party will certainly hear of it”, Vanhanen said.
      The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) had previously reported that Vanhanen had heard of the matter in October. The commercial TV network Nelonen said that he heard about it in December, and according to the interpretations of some other media, it was at another time.
     
Jonkka, the Prosecutor General’s office, and the NBI met to discuss the matter in December, examining all of the election funding issues investigated by the NBI.
      Vanhanen was mentioned during the discussion at Jonkka’s initiative, because complaints had been made to the Chancellor of Justice on the distribution of RAY funds.
      “I thought that when the NBI does its investigations, it might get small kernels of information that might help in dealing with the complaints. Nothing more came of it. I have been waiting for the NBI to inform me eventually.”
     
Starting a criminal investigation into the actions of a government minister in office would be a big step. The threshold is lower for a reprimand from the Chancellor of Justice.
      “A reprimand can be given for unlawful action that is not a crime. [Such an action] can be a violation of conflict-of-interest rules which does not meet the criteria of any crimes.”
     
The government informed Parliament about the campaign finance issue last year. The key sentence read: “Receiving election support as such does not usually put anyone in a conflict of interest in a legal sense.”
      Vanhanen took refuge behind this sentence on Thursday. The Chancellor of Justice or his representative were also involved in formulating the statement. Now the chancellor says that he is starting from a “clean table”. The word “automatic” in determining the existence of a conflict of interest was Vanhanen’s own invention.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Vanhanen sees no problem with foundations making campaign donations (22.9.2009)
  RAY Chairman Vihriälä resigns in midst of election funding furore (23.9.2009)
  Police looking into actions of Finnish PM in RAY case (28.1.2010)
  Vanhanen refuses to accept sole responsibility for election funding row (28.9.2009)

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