History
The National Audit Office and its predecessors have audited central government finances and the state’s financial management for centuries. While the NAOF’s tasks have expanded in step with growing societal and central government needs, its basic duty has remained the same.
As early as the 16th century, a Chamber Council was established to monitor financial management under the Swedish Crown. During the period of Finland’s autonomy, the year 1824 marked the birth of the NAOF in its current form. In that year, Count C. E. Mannerheim, Vice-Chairman of the Senate Finance Department, proposed the establishment of a General Revision Court. The Revision Court and the Revision Office subordinate to it began auditing the accounts of the Treasury and the military in the beginning of the following year.
The following period of almost one hundred years did not bring any major changes to the operation of the General Revision Court. The Finance Committee of the unicameral Parliament inaugurated in 1907 proposed a reform of the Revision Court, as the central government had gradually expanded during the period of autonomy. However, the turmoil of the First World War among other reasons meant that this reform never went ahead. Once Finland had gained independence, the role of the agency began to change: it was also assigned the task of auditing compliance with the budget.
In 1923, the agency changed its name to the State Revision Office, which also monitored appropriate management of state finances. This meant assessing “whether extravagance or unnecessary expenditure and costs has been indulged in”.
At the beginning of the Continuation War in 1941, the Audit Office of Military Economy was established alongside the State Revision Office. This office, tasked with auditing the costs incurred from the war, operated until 1946.
The building of the welfare state created additional audit tasks
In 1948, the office took on its current name, the National Audit Office of Finland. The scope of its tasks also expanded from financial audit to auditing legality as well as efficiency, economy and effectiveness. This change reflected the growing need for transparency and impact in general government.
The NAOF operated under the Ministry of Finance. While the NAOF was more independent than before, the ministry and the government could assign tasks to it. Over the next few decades, the growth of the Finnish welfare state created many more audit tasks for the agency.
The NAOF was given a more extensive right of access to information in 1973. Since that time, the NAOF has been free to select its audit topics and to determine the scope of each audit independently.
Affiliation with Parliament strengthened independence
The NAOF’s position under the Ministry of Finance was found difficult, as the ministry was one of the audited entities. This is why placing the NAOF in connection with Parliament was first proposed already in the late 1960s.
As part of the constitutional reform of 2001, the NAOF was transferred to operate in affiliation with Parliament. This transfer stressed the NAOF’s position as an independent audit authority. The NAOF was given a constitutional status, and its tasks were laid down in a separate act. Its role as part of parliamentary oversight was put on a permanent footing, and the connection with Parliament led to closer interaction, especially with the Finance and Audit Committees.
New tasks and an expanding role
The NAOF’s duties expanded to include oversight tasks in the 2000s. In 2009, the NAOF was given the task of overseeing election campaign funding. The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body had stated in 2007 that responsibility for the oversight of election campaign funding should be assigned to an impartial body, and this task was consequently transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the NAOF. Since 2010 the NAOF has also overseen political party funding.
Under EU regulations, each Member State had to have an independent body that monitors compliance with fiscal policy legislation and assesses the reliability of macroeconomic forecasts, among other things. The task of monitoring fiscal policy in Finland was assigned to the NAOF from the beginning of 2013, for example because the NAOF already had experience of fiscal policy audit.
The need for a transparency register that would increase openness in politics came up for the first time in 2014. The purpose of the register is to maintain political transparency, ensuring that systematic influencing, in other words lobbying, of the ministries and the government does not remain concealed. The Finnish Transparency Register was launched in early 2024 with the NAOF as its registrar.
Along with its tasks of overseeing election campaign and political party funding and maintaining the Transparency Register, the NAOF has started offering advisory services: it provides instructions to candidates and elected representatives as well as those submitting disclosures to the Finnish Transparency Register.
Cooperation with international counterparts
As the Supreme Audit Institution, the NAOF has no domestic counterparts. For this reason, the NAOF has sought partners in international organisations since the 1950s.
The NAOF participated in the Congress of INTOSAI, the International Organization for Supreme Audit Institutions, for the first time in 1956. The NAOF has been a member of EUROSAI, the European umbrella organisation for Supreme Audit Institutions, since this organisation was established in the late 1980s.
Following Finland’s EU accession, the NAOF was given the right and obligation to audit transfers of funds between Finland and the European Union.
Varojen vahti – 200 years of the NAOF’s history
For a more detailed account of the auditing of state funds and the history of the National Audit Office, see Varojen vahti, published to mark the NAOF’s 200th anniversary (available in Finnish only).
