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Corruption crimes
No national definition of corruption appears in any Finnish law, in the law-drafting programme, in the government programme, or in the programme for the country’s internal security. As defined generally, corruption means the misuse of a position of authority in order to gain private benefit. Corruptive activity may therefore become apparent in connection with very different suspected crimes. In the public sector, corruption is usually manifested as offences in office, and bribery. In the private sector, corruption may express itself as, for example, bribery offences in the business world, crimes relating to business secrets, misuse of a position of trust, and fraud and embezzlement. As with economic crime, corruption has substantial indirect consequences. For example, corruption distorts healthy competition in business and influences public trust in decision-making systems.
In Finland there are still very few suspected corruption offences reported to the police, making it difficult to draw far-reaching conclusions about the scope of the corruption phenomenon. As is the case with economic crimes, corruption crimes are largely a form of hidden criminality, so that Finns may have an overly positive image of the phenomenon and its extent and seriousness in Finland. One can state, however, on the basis of suspected crimes reported to the police that are presumed to involve corruption, that hardly any corruption occurs in daily dealings between citizens and public authorities in Finland. Corruption connected to the activities of public authorities is not, therefore, seen as a serious problem in our society, at least by way of international comparison.
On the other hand, the extremely low number of suspected corruption offences may, for its part, indicate the lack of sufficient monitoring and reporting mechanisms in both public administration and the business world. It may also suggest deficient methods among criminal investigation authorities for combating and exposing corruption crimes.
In 2010 the police received more reports of suspected offences containing corruption than in previous years. Suspicions of violation of business and official secrets, in particular, have been on the increase. There has also been an increase in the number of suspected bribery crimes, and offences involving the misuse of a position of trust. Even though the number of offences reported to the police where corruption is suspected remains relatively small, corruption exists in Finland both in the business world and in the public sector.
The ill effects of corruption are apparent in both public and private sectors through the adding of unnecessary costs to services provided by public administration and to business activities. For example, extraneous, unlawful or semi-illegal permit fees, petty fines or service charges in border traffic constitute a significant extra burden of costs for companies. The detrimental effects are also apparent as a distortion of competitive situations. Corruption and other forms of inappropriate influence are also closely connected to the black economy, and the threat of corruption is apparent in the construction industry, at least. The intelligence information of the police supports this perception. For example, bribery of people who make decisions on construction projects promotes other criminal activities connected to the black economy by creating a favourable operating environment for the pursuit of benefits to be gained through other crimes and the continuation of criminal activity by organised groups of criminals.
The observations on the appearance of corruption in our society presented below are based, for the most part, on suspected offences reported to the police that involve or may involve corruption. The figures stated in connection with the various crimes describe the number of reports of offences, or cases, registered by the police. One report of an offence may include several different crimes and criminal suspects. When reviewing the figures, one should remember that not all corruption offences are necessarily economic crimes or, at least, have not been classified as such in the information system of the Finnish police force.
Offences in office
When one looks at the number of reports of offences indicating corruption, offences in office are clearly the biggest group that may involve corruption. The number of suspected offences in office reported to the police has grown steadily in the 2000s. Upon reviewing offences in office one should also note that, instead of active performance, corruption may also take the form of passive neglect of official duties.
In 2010, a total of 355 reports involving suspected offences in office were registered in the offence reporting system of the police, slightly more than in the preceding year. These cases involved a total of 594 offences, with slightly more than two per cent listed under economic crimes. The biggest increase has been seen in suspected offences involving the violation of an official duty, although these do not seem to contain corruptive elements. Suspicions of bribery crimes, violation of official secrets and misuse of official authority have also been on the rise when compared with previous years.
Bribery crimes
During the 2000s the police have logged, on average, approximately 10 reports of bribery crimes in the information systems each year. Last year a total of 20 reports involving suspected bribery offences were registered in the offence reporting system of the police, far more than ever before. The police did not record a single suspicion of aggravated bribery in its offence reporting system in 2010.
Bribery offences that have come to light in Finland at the beginning of the 21st century have been mostly so-called minor street corruption offences, where a public servant has been offered an unjustified benefit – usually money – to forego a certain measure. It has been characteristic of these suspicions that a bribe has been offered but not accepted. On the basis of the technique of bribery offences reported to the police in 2009 and 2010, it would appear that the structure of bribery is changing. Last year only one report was registered concerning a bribe offered for the purpose of foregoing a certain measure. Indeed last year, and the year before, more and more suspicions of bribery offences were targeted at higher-level public officials taking part in decision-making significant for society as a whole. Last year the police also received a greater number of reports of suspected offences against decision-makers.
Corruption in business operations
Few bribery crimes in the business world are reported to the police. One may assume that the amount of hidden criminality is at least on the same level as in other economic crime, in other words very high. Only a few suspected bribery offences in the business world are recorded every year; looking at these, one cannot make any reliable conclusions about the scope of the phenomenon. Suspected bribery offences in the business world that are reported to the police typically originate from an investigation request made by the complainant. A distinctive feature of those bribery offences is that the people who take the bribe often act secretly, without their employer’s knowledge, whereas those offering the bribe often aim to benefit their employer. Criminal statistics on bribery offences in business would seem to tell more about the supervision mechanisms of the employers and their willingness to file reports than the actual number of crimes.
Last year the police recorded five reports of offences regarding bribery in business classified as economic crime cases. Of these, four reports included both the person giving and accepting the bribe as a suspect.
Although few suspected bribery offences in the business world are reported to the police, one may assume that interaction between companies in the black economy, designed for short-term utilisation of business structures, probably involves bribery or extortion demands that are not displayed in police statistics. In the course of 2010, the police became aware of a few suspected business bribes upon an investigation of economic crime cases within the grey economy. These cases that ended up in pre-trial investigation strengthen the perception that bribery offences, too, are closely connected to the grey economy in the construction sector.
There has been a steady increase in the number of suspected violations of business secrets in the past few years. In 2010 the police recorded 40 crime reports about suspected violations of business secrets, total of 44 offences of violation of a business secret were recorded, with more than 60 per cent of these classified as economic crimes. The number is higher than ever before. It would seem that there remain violations of business secrets in all industries, and typically the suspicion falls on former employees who are starting their own business.
Suspicions involving the misuse of a position of trust are a serious threat to companies and other corporations. Suspicions are targeted at people who enjoy the confidence of the company or corporation in a responsible position and, by utilising that trust, can obtain unjustified financial gain and thus cause considerable damage to the complainant. Indeed, it is indicative of the misuse of a position of trust that the suspect is actively pursuing personal benefit1. Often suspicions of the misuse of a position of trust also involve other suspected offences, such as embezzlement and fraud.
The number of suspected misuses of a position of trust reported to the police has grown steadily in the new millennium. In 2010 the police registered a total of 54 reports of offences involving suspected misuse of a position of trust, more than ever before. Some of the suspected cases recorded by the police last year were directed at people holding responsibl
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