How do we decide what we audit and oversee?
The National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) has an independent role in public administration. This is also reflected in the fact that the NAOF plans its audit and oversight activities and selects its audit topics independently. The NAOF’s activities are based on several statutes.
The audit and oversight plan is a highly important document for our activities. Under the Act on the National Audit Office of Finland, performing audits is based on an audit plan approved by the NAOF itself. At the same time, the audit plan is, in practice, a list of forthcoming audit work, prepared by the NAOF for itself.
The NAOF’s audit rights were extended at the beginning of 2026. From now on, the NAOF has the right to audit the appropriateness, cost-effectiveness and legality of the activities and financial management of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela). The right to audit the wellbeing services counties as regards state funding has already been used in several audits during the recent years. Several audits will be targeted at both Kela and the wellbeing services counties in 2026.
We utilise our audit rights comprehensively
The NAOF’s audit rights are quite extensive, and we aim to utilise them comprehensively, appropriately and according to plan. In this way, way also promote the transparency and effectiveness of the use of public funds, the importance of which is highlighted particularly in difficult economic times.
Our mandate is broad and our resources are limited, so we naturally have to make choices as to where we direct our audit activities at any given time. We assess subject areas taking into account all administrative sectors. Our objective is to identify subject areas that are economically significant and also involve risks from the perspective of legality or cost-effectiveness of the state’s financial management. We must also always assess whether different topics that seem interesting are in fact auditable.
In addition to separate performance and compliance audits, we also conduct the financial audits of all central government accounting offices and the final central government accounts. This ensures that each agency and institution is subject to at least some degree of audit every year – basic requirements are not compromised.
Oversight tasks change
Fiscal policy monitoring at the NAOF ended at the end of 2025. For 12 years, the NAOF acted as a fully independent fiscal institution, monitoring, among other things, compliance with the rules governing fiscal decision-making and overall responsibility in the management of public finances. Even before taking on the monitoring task, we had carried out fiscal policy audits. The audits do not assess the fiscal policy pursued but focus particularly on the preparation and planning of the policy and on the reliability of the information base used in this. In practice, this means the procedures and other resources that the Government’s civil service provides for political decision-making within the framework of the law. Audits supporting Parliament’s access to information remain a strong focus: this year, we will audit three new topics and continue to regularly audit compliance with the central government spending limits as well as the General Government Fiscal Plan. We will also continue to carry out ex-post assessments of the reliability of the economic forecasts used as a basis for fiscal policy, i.e. assessments based on comparing forecasts with actual outcomes.
At the beginning of this year, we took on a new oversight role under EU legislation as the authority overseeing political advertising and acting as the national contact point. This task brings new organisations under the NAOF’s oversight: information intermediaries operating as advertising platforms, i.e. in practice, media companies. By performing this responsible task, we will promote the transparency of political funding and influence, alongside the oversight tasks already carried out by the NAOF. These tasks are also included in the audit and oversight plan that has just been updated.
