Oversight of election campaign and political party funding
The National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) oversees election campaign and political party funding. The oversight supports open government and democracy. When the funding used in election campaigns and political party activities and its sources are known, it is, for example, possible to assess the candidates’ and political parties’ ties to third parties.
Information on election campaign and political party funding is available on the vaalirahoitus.fi website, which is maintained by the NAOF. On this website, anyone can view details on, for example, the scale of election campaigns and political party funding as well as the sources of the funding.
The elected candidates and appointed alternate members must always submit an election funding disclosure. Political parties, their affiliated entities and the party associations receiving party subsidies, in turn, must submit to the NAOF the documents and accounts referred to in the Act on Political Parties.
All disclosures related to election funding and political party funding are submitted through the service portal on the vaalirahoitus.fi website. The NAOF ensures that all actors subject to the disclosure obligation submit the disclosures and provide the necessary additional information.
Oversight of election campaign funding
The NAOF monitors election campaign funding in county and municipal elections, parliamentary elections, European Parliament elections and presidential elections.
The elected candidates and the candidates appointed as alternate members must disclose the costs and funding of their election campaign. In addition, all candidates are encouraged to submit an advance disclosure on their election funding so that information on election funding would be available as early as possible.
The NAOF receives and publishes election funding disclosures and oversees that all actors subject to the disclosure obligation submit election funding disclosures. The NAOF also verifies that the election funding disclosures contain true and fair information. If necessary, the actor subject to the disclosure obligation must provide the NAOF with additional information on the funding.
Oversight of political party funding
The NAOF oversees how political parties, their affiliated entities and the party associations receiving party subsidies comply with the provisions on:
- support from organisations or private individuals as referred to in the Act on Political Parties
- the disclosure of election campaign costs and funding
- the preparation and filing of documents and information related to the above.
In addition, the NAOF oversees the use of party subsidies, i.e. government grants to political parties. For example, the NAOF oversees that the party subsidies are used in accordance with the terms of the government grant decision.
Party organisations must disclose their funding and submit the necessary documents to the NAOF. The NAOF oversees political party funding and the use of party subsidies by auditing political parties, their affiliated entities and party associations annually.
Through the audits, the NAOF ensures that the information on the activities of political parties and party associations submitted to it and published by it is essentially correct and that the parties and party associations have acted in accordance with the law. The NAOF audits, for example, the annual accounts, financial audit reports and party subsidy reports of party organisations.