Finland Times

 

Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen leaving parliament on Thursday after PM question hour. Photo Lehtikuva

A no confidence motion brought in the parliament against the Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen by an opposition party on Thursday was rejected as most of the lawmakers cast their votes against the motion.  

 

The opposition Perussuomalainen (True Finns) party brought the no confidence motion following the observation of the chancellor of justice, who raised question about good governance in the deal of the EUR 700,000 research report bought by the government from philosopher Pekka Himanen without bidding.

 

The House rejected the motion placed by the parliamentary group chair of the party, Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner by 141 votes to 16. Only the Perussuomalainen  and two left party lawmakers supported the motion.

 

Earlier, on September 6, the Chancellor of Justice, Jaakko Jonkka in his statement on the case said  “no good governance was  found in the process” while resolving number of complaints brought against  Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen in this regard. 

 

Jonkka said according to good governance it is essential to make such deal public. 

 

The chancellor of Justice observed that the normal procedure of funding was not followed in case of the research project. 

 

“The procedures of the purchase could have taken place through competitive bidding to make it justified,” said the statement.

 

The observation was based on the investigation conducted by the Academy of Finland.

 

Earlier, the constitutional law committee of parliament on June 19 cleared Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen as he was not found making any breach of law in the purchase deal of research report. 

 

File picture of parliamentary group chair of the party, Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner. Photo Lehtikuva.

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 constitution 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.

 

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 Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen after the parliamentary law committee report said that he was completely innocent.

 

The committee, earlier on March 28, received a written opinion from the Prime Minister regarding the research report bought by the government.

 

File picture of Philosopher Pekka Himanen. Photo Lehtikuva

The Prime Minister’s 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 there was no competition 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 in 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.