Financial responsibility

Despite stable finances, we made preparations for risks

Financial responsibility comes under the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (16).

Financial responsibility at the PRH means sustainable use of funds, compliance with the law and up-to-date register data, and thus providing our customers, companies, organisations and Finnish society as a whole with maximum customer value.

On this page, you can read more about the following:

Balanced finances

Our financial situation remained stable and the PRH achieved most of the financial targets for 2022 agreed between the agency and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Read more about our financial results in our Annual Report.

In 2022, we started the work to improve our financial management procedures, and the planning and monitoring of investments. In the first stage, we identified and described the planning processes for operating, financial and ICT investments and the connections between them.

We promoted timeliness of register data

Our customers and other actors in Finnish society use up-to-date, accurate and comprehensive register data for many different purposes.

We work to enhance the comprehensiveness and timeliness of the information by, for example, sending reminder letters to our customers. Failure to submit financial statements and board details may lead to the removal of a company from the Trade Register.

It is in the interest of society at large and the parties that need financial statements of companies that as many companies as possible submit their financial statements to the Trade Register. We substantially improved the comprehensiveness of the financial statement information during 2022.

The new Trade Register Act will provide the PRH with more effective tools to ensure that the data kept in the register is up to date. Preparations for the act continued during 2022 and it will enter into force in June 2023.

We made preparations for the new act by, for example, improving our information systems. The aim is to ensure that the monitoring of the register data can be comprehensively automated.

Coverage of the financial statements kept in the Trade Register

Coverage of the financial statements kept in the Trade Register improved between 2019 and 2022. In 2022, a total of 95.3% of Finnish companies had submitted their financial statements to the register, compared with 89.8% in 2021. The figure for 2020 was 83.6% and for 2019 it was 78.7%.

We investigated the fight against misconduct

No misconduct or offences concerning financial management were identified at the PRH during 2022 and there were no irregularities related to EU funding or transactions involving recovery.

Under our financial rules, each PRH staff member must report any misconduct that they have observed. The prime responsibility for combating irregularities rests with the PRH management.

In 2022, we examined which key instruments to combat misconduct had not yet been implemented at the PRH. The following four sets of measures were identified and the two first of them were promoted during the year:

Developing a reliable internal reporting method to allow staff members to anonymously report suspected misconduct to an independent team. During 2022, we prepared the organisation of and guidelines and communications for an anonymous reporting channel. We introduced the reporting channel in March 2023.
Risk management in connection with corruption and bribery: We have determined that corruption and bribery may constitute risks at the PRH. In the future, our aim is to proactively ensure that the activities and decisions of the PRH cannot be influenced with bribery or corruption. To do this, we must identify the PRH activities and decisions that may be targeted by bribery and corruption and to determine the severity of this risk. Depending of the risk assessment, we will create measures to prevent influence attempts and thus also any misconduct.
Preparing and introducing an anti-corruption action and reporting model: An effective operating model must be based on the awareness and understanding of corruption as a phenomenon and identifying of risk areas and misconduct.
Increasing awareness of corruption: The PRH must prepare clear operating instructions for situations involving influencing, for example, by determining what constitutes acceptable hospitality. Staff members must also be provided with training in the combating of corruption and bribery.

We developed information and risk management

In 2022, we continued the work to make information management, knowledge management and risk management more systematic and set out the vision for information management at the PRH for 2028.

The vision provides a strategic basis for improving the shared use, usability and openness of information, and helps to enhance knowledge management and the management of know-how.

In cooperation with Statistics Finland, we created a pilot project in which the data quality framework of Statistics Finland was assessed in relation to the data resource of the PRH’s trademark register. We used the experience gained from the project to analyse how the quality criteria of the quality framework can be used to measure and improve the quality of the PRH-managed data resources. We also prepared a plan to improve the capability of data quality.

The PRH started systematic development of its risk management system in 2020. In 2022, the work had progressed to a point where the new risk management policy was approved and the risk management working group started its work.

We purchased a system to support comprehensive risk management, which enables a uniform way to identify and assess risks and specifies and assigns responsibilities for managing the risks. The system will also facilitate monitoring and reporting. The system will be adopted throughout the organisation in 2023.