Ähtäri internal audit report ready, but secret for now

The city of Ähtäri carried out an internal audit because of the write-downs made last summer. The report is now ready, but it is not yet made public.

The internal audit launched by the City of Ähtäri due to the write-downs in the 2023 financial statements has been completed.

However, the city has declared the final report of the study team confidential for the time being.

The report will be discussed today by the City Council.

The Ähtäri council will probably discuss the matter at the meeting on February 3.

Even after that, the final report will probably not become fully public, but may contain confidential points.

– It will be resolved separately. According to the Publicity Act, the grounds can be such that if the disclosure would endanger the monitoring or the realization of its purpose, or without a compelling reason would be liable to cause damage to those involved, says Sonninen.

Was it wrongly delivered or not?

Last summer, Ähtäri wrote down approximately EUR 7.6 million in sales and loan receivables from its travel companies during the financial statement processing.

It was about three tourism companies in the city; Ähtärin Animal Park Oy, Snowpanda Resort Ähtäri Zoo Oy and Hotelli Mesikämmen Oy. Of these, the Snowpanda Resort real estate company has gone bankrupt.

Eläinpuisto and Mesikämmen, on the other hand, have reached debt restructuring.

The internal audit has examined, among other things, decision-making on loans, powers and collection actions.

Two members of the Ähtäri City Council did not sign the financial statements.

The mayor still does not agree to say even verbally whether the city’s officials or decision-makers have possibly acted incorrectly in the decision-making of the matters subject to write-downs.

– Of course, I can’t even verbally say anything at this stage when the matter is unfinished, states Sonninen.

In Ähtäri, the city’s decision-making and especially its support of tourism companies have been criticized. Numerous appeals have been made to the administrative court about the decisions.