The Åland government cooked the books of their financial statements for 2018 by illegally taking one million euros reserved in the budget for public health care to cover for operational losses. This data comes from the yearly financial audit, made public recently by the official auditors, led by Dan Bergman.
According to the auditors, the Åland government has not only gone against good accounting practices, but even breached financial law by deliberately presenting false numbers in their books, misrepresenting the yearly results by €1 000 000.
”The result presented on the last row of the balance account for 2018 is 1 million euros better than in reality. A truly accurate picture of the result of the administration is therefore not presented. The law of financial administration declares that the Åland government is bound to follow good accounting practices. The budget reservation has not been handled according to the law”, reads the statement from the auditors.
In the audit it was also discovered that the government had made payments of €900 000 to the wrong account when making health care investments and not having accounted for the money in their expenses report.
The retirement liabilities for the Åland government increased from 769 to 784 million euros during 2018, but the available retirement funds are currently only 450 million euros, giving a deficit of over 300 million euros. In other words, the retirement deficit was increased by €500 for each citizen during 2018, leaving a total of about €10 000 in non-funded retirement liabilities for each man, woman and child living in Åland.
Auditors also remarked on the heavy losses of the government’s venture capitalism company Ålands Utvecklings AB. Since its inception, the company has managed to lose a staggering €2 600 000 of taxpayers’ money, making failed speculative investments. Nevertheless, the government continues to account for the companies original value when balancing the books, thereby misrepresenting the balance as well by millions of euros. The auditors recommend writing off some of the value to better represent reality.
Ålands Nyheter has repeatedly contacted finance minister Mats Perämaa for a comment regarding the serious accusations made by the auditors against the government. He has so far refused any comment, but will be held accountable to parlament for the audit report by may 20th.