During 2019-2020, President of the RIOC Board, Tanja Tamminen, and Vice-President, Noora Välimäki, worked in a Finnish Government funded project preparing corruption monitoring indicators for Finland (KORSI). The project aimed to identify and develop quantitative and qualitative indicators of corruption suited to Finland as a basis for regular monitoring. The project consortium was led by the Police University College.
On 19 November 2020 the three final reports were published in Finnish on the website of Government’s analysis, assessment and research activities. Such publications, coordinated by the Government (in this case Ministry of Justice), aim at generating “information that supports decision making, working practices and management by knowledge”. Tanja Tamminen proposes in the 2nd report entitled “Methods for comprehensive corruption monitoring” a number of new ways for Finland to assess the corruption situation. Noora Välimäki focuses on corruption surveys with Vesa Muttilainen in an article to be found in the 3rd report. 1st report is an overview of all the recommendations of the research project and it has also been translated in English.
The aim of the KORSI-project was to identify and develop quantitative and qualitative indicators of corruption suited to Finland as a basis for regular monitoring. In Finland both the anti-corruption strategy and action plan are currently being prepared. Tamminen encourages in her report to create a comprehensive situational picture of corruption in Finland based on corruption threat and risk assessments as well as on a regular assessment process of the implementation of anti-corruption measures.
Corruption risk assessments are still rare in Finland, but for instance RIOC member Fanni Rantamaa shows in her Master’s thesis (TY 2020) that risks related to public procurement are also risks for the Finnish economic development.
Tamminen brings up a number of innovative tools how corruption that is difficult to detect could be revealed. In her report, she suggests that the Finnish authorities would start preparing risk assessments in different sectors, as this is not currently the case. She also recommends a comprehensive approach that would regularly collect information from different sectors in the society. In Finland, the sectors of the administration function too often as silos and the smooth exchange of information across sectors is difficult and the inter-linkages between thematic such as money laundering, organised crime, informal economy economy and issues related to open government and administration are not detected. Corruption is linked with all the mentioned phenomena and requires an integrated approach. Tamminen advocates for regular corruption assessments and follow up reports.