• 20.04.2023 at 06.45
• Financial audit

Effectiveness of the public business service system

Follow-up completed: 28.11.2025

Due to the large number of services and service providers, the public business service system is complex and difficult to steer. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment should, together with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, simplify the system, specify the division of labour between the ministries, and clarify the roles of service providers.

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The inadequacy of companies’ growth and willingness to grow has been identified as one of the problems in enterprise policy. Earlier studies and assessments have shown that companies and service providers find the business service system complicated and difficult to understand.

The audit assessed the organisation of the business service system, the prerequisites for its effective operation, the cooperation between the actors, and the steering of business services. Based on the audit, the availability of public business services and the service offering are, in general, at a good level. Various quantitative short-term objectives have been set for public business services. In view of steering, the indicators related to the objectives do not give an accurate or sufficient picture of the cost-effectiveness of the service system.

Efforts have been made to improve the functioning of the business service system by promoting networked cooperation and by developing information exchange between the actors as well as the shared information systems. However, the complexity of the service system causes a manageability problem, for which no solution has been found. The basic problem with the overall steering of the business service system is the complexity of the system and the large number of actors to be steered. Steering is also hampered by the fact that some service providers operate nationally, some regionally, and that business services are also provided by other than central government actors.

The National Audit Office recommends that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment should, in cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, simplify the business service system by specifying the division of labour between the ministries and clarifying the roles of the organisations providing the services. At the same time, the ministries should ensure the predictability and continuity of the services, which are important to businesses.

Follow-up

The follow-up has been completed. The report is available in Finnish only.