The most common reason for the allegations is that the company has breached the terms of the aid, for example by using funds for the purchase of equipment or other investments, staff training or wage costs arising from its normal activities.
“Ineligible costs are deducted from funding and funding is then paid according to eligible costs,” said Kari Komulainen, Business Finland’s Director of Emergency Finance.
Business Finland has recovered approximately EUR 11 million from more than 900 companies.
The ELY centers, on the other hand, have received or requested refunds worth approximately EUR 2.5 million from 340 companies. The majority of reimbursements and reimbursement requests were due to the fact that the companies spent less on their development projects than required by the decision on the aid application. However, some companies have also breached the conditions when using the aid, for example for investments.
“The amount charged per company is a maximum of tens of thousands of euros, but in other cases only a few thousand” Tommi Muilu, The director of the Häme ELY Center told YLE.
The Business Finland and ELY centers paid about EUR 1.3 billion in support for business development projects during the pandemic.
Komulainen told the broadcaster that it seems that the support has really helped companies – especially in developing their digital operations.
He and Muilu also stressed that very few companies that misused financial support seemed to have done so intentionally; For example, it may simply be difficult to distinguish between the wage costs incurred as part of a development project and the wage costs incurred in the ordinary course of business.
“Most of the supported companies are small companies, where the same personnel manage daily activities and implement development projects,” Komulainen explained.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page