Complaint
Anyone can submit a complaint to the National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF). Complaints are investigated free of charge.
Submitting a complaint
A complaint can be submitted in free form by email. The complaint must include at least the following information:
- what procedure – e.g. decision, procurement or action by an authority – or omission the complaint concerns
- on what grounds the complainant considers the procedure to be unlawful or incorrect
- if possible, information on when the procedure or omission that the complaint concerns took place.
You should describe as precisely as possible the grounds on which your complaint is based and attach any supporting documents. However, if the complainant does not have all the documents relevant to the investigation of the matter, the NAOF has extensive rights of access to information regarding public authorities and other actors subject to the complaint in order to be able to investigate the complaint.
You can submit a complaint by email to kirjaamo@vtv.fi or by letter to National Audit Office, P.O. Box 1119, 00101 Helsinki.
You can also submit a complaint by email using the secure messaging service, which requires registration (follow the instructions on the page). Use the secure messaging service if you send materials including information that is to be kept secret or that is otherwise sensitive. If you send materials belonging to the authorities’ security class I, II or III, you should agree separately on this with the NAOF’s registry.
Subjects of complaints
A complaint can be submitted if you suspect that
- the law has not been complied with in the state’s financial management
- the state budget has not been complied with
- an entity audited by the NAOF has not fulfilled its obligation related to the above
- a government grant or other financial support has been misused
- the law has not been complied with in the state’s ownership steering or policy.
Targets of complaints
The target of the complaint can be
- a ministry or a government agency or institution
- an unincorporated state enterprise or a state fund
- an entity carrying out public administrative tasks with state funding
- a recipient of a government grant or other financial support
- a state-controlled company
- entities and foundations belonging to a wellbeing services county corporation
- the rescue services or social welfare and health care services in the City of Helsinki or an entity that performs these tasks and is controlled by the City of Helsinki
- transfers of funds between Finland and the European Union.
What cannot be complained about to the NAOF
You cannot submit a complaint to the NAOF about
- the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela)
- Parliament or the funds under its responsibility
- the Bank of Finland
- municipalities
- government authorities in other countries
- international organisations
- private individuals (however, you can submit a complaint about an individual public official in relation to the performance of their official duties).
Nor does the NAOF investigate complaints
- outside its competence, i.e. complaints concerning matters over which it has no auditing right
- matters that are more than two years old unless there are specific reasons for carrying out an investigation
- matters that are being processed by a court of law or another government authority
- matters in which an appeal is pending or that may be appealed against
- submitted anonymously unless there are specific reasons for carrying out an investigation.
Processing of a complaint
When a complaint arrives at the NAOF, it is assigned a register number. The case is also assigned handlers. An acknowledgement of receipt is sent to the person who filed the complaint electronically.
If there is reason to suspect that the target of the complaint has acted unlawfully or neglected its duties, the NAOF investigates the matter and decides the case. The complainant, the target of the complaint, and the actors requested to submit opinions are notified of the decision.
When a complaint has been resolved, it will, as a rule, become public. The complainant may request that their identity be kept confidential, but this is possible only if there are grounds for confidentiality under the Act on the Openness of Government Activities. The NAOF does not investigate anonymous complaints unless there are specific reasons for doing so.