Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen talking to journalists in parliament after the report of Constitutional Law Committee on Wednesday.Photo -Lehtikuva.
The constitutional Law committee of Parliament on Wednesday cleared Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen as he was not found making any breach of law in a purchase deal of research report at a cost of 700,000 Euros.
The committee made the observation after investigating whether the purchase of the research project involved any gross negligence, breach of ministerial exercise or unlawful act by the Prime Minister.
The constitutional committee took over the issue following the demand of number of lawmakers that the prime minister might have conflicting interest in the purchase of report from researcher Pekka Himanen.
File picture of Philosopher Pekka Himanen.Photo -Lehtikuva.
Chairman of the committee Johannes Koskinen, however, said that they had examined only the legal aspects of the deal and found no violation of law by the Prime Minister.
The matter is being investigating also by the office of the Chancellor of Justice, which is scheduled to be completed by the first week of August.
The Chancellor of Justice Jaakko Jonkka said that the issue would be settled now as per the existing law of the country.
The Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen after the parliamentary law committee report said that he was completely innocent.
‘It is effective, if the criticism takes place during or before the deal than after the deal,’ Katainen told journalists in the parliament.
Earlier, the committee on March 28 received a written opinion from the Prime Minister regarding the research report bought by the government.
The Prime Minister Office has recommended that the research project worth EUR 700 000 carried out individually on the future of finance by Professor Pekka Himanen should be bought and no competition was taken place in the tender process.
The Prime Minister said that all of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes and the Academy of Finland expressed interest to the research project and decided to support it.
He believed that the research director would have been refused to report on the financing, even if the Prime Minister were active in this regard.
The research project included many things like the information society studied Manuel Cartsels, said Katainen, adding that he wanted to look forward to the report as there will be new ideas and there are many thing to learn for Finland.
