Politicians and municipal staff from the capital region have spent hundreds of thousands of euros on fact-finding foreign trips over the last few years, an Yle investigation has revealed.
Yle's probe focused on trips by politicians from the cities of Vantaa, Espoo and Helsinki to various parts of Europe. In addition to elected officials, some members of city staff also participated in the trips.
There have been a total of 11 such trips since 2024, costing the municipal taxpayer a total of nearly 360,000 euros.
The most expensive was a two-day visit to Vienna by members of Helsinki City's social, health and rescue committee, during which the 21 participants met local politicians and learned about how social and healthcare services are provided in the Austrian capital.
With hotel costs exceeding 400 euros per night, and a daily meal allowance of over 100 euros, the cost of the trip per participant was 2,458 euros — leading to a final bill of 52,000 euros for the City of Helsinki.
City paid consultancy €17k to arrange trip
A spokesperson for the City told Yle that the costs of official trips must be kept to a minimum, but also must allow the participants to meet the objectives of the visit.
"Our understanding is that the trip [to Vienna] was carried out in accordance with the conditions that the city has," Helsinki City's social and healthcare director Juha Jolkkonen said.
Yle's probe also found that nearly 17,000 euros was paid to the consultancy firm KPMG for arranging the trip to Vienna.
"This is a cost-effective way to implement the trip," Jolkkonen explained, adding that the participants gain new perspectives on municipal activities abroad that they can adapt at home.
He further noted that the health committee makes similar trips only once per council term, as is usually the custom for other city committees as well.
Yle's probe also found that the most expensive trips per person were the City of Helsinki's culture and leisure committee's visit to Milan (€2,065, two nights) and the City of Espoo's audit committee's trip to Brussels and Luxembourg (€1,986, three nights).
Bang for buck?
Almost all of the study tours analysed by Yle were to big European cities, such as Vienna, Milan, London and Brussels.
These trips, also known as study tours or peer learning, allow municipal officials to learn more about programmes or initiatives run in other European countries, with a view to bringing actionable strategies back to Finland.
However, the costs involved have raised questions about their feasibility, especially at a time of economic crisis for many local governments.
The trips that formed part of Yle's investigation cost somewhere between 12,000 and 52,000 euros, and the number of participants ranged between 13 to 26.
"Each travel destination is examined to ensure that there are specifically useful things to see and learn there at that time," the City of Helsinki's director of administrative procedures Antti Peltonen told Yle.
