Tempest in a teacup - or a little more

The government's commissioning of a pricey report on Finland's future from a famous philosopher is still under scrutiny.
Pekka Himanen's vision of the future set the state back hundreds of thousands of euros, sure.
The government did not seek competing offers when commissioning the 700,000 euro paper from philosopher Pekka Himanen's company, Sofos. Furthermore, the prime minister's office did not follow through with a formal decision process when ordering the report.
But now the rising storm. Here they talk about some sort of snake-oil.
A story by Long Play two weeks ago cast doubt on the decision-making process behind the report, including the involvement of Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen’s office. Ofcourse Katainen denied any impropriety, saying that the leaders of Sitra, Tekes and the Academy of Finland had all shown enthusiasm about the project.
A senior figure at Tekes, since retired, then said that his organisation would have preferred to put the job out to tender, rather than award funding straight to Pekka Himanen.
Despite his concerns, the contract went to Himanen without competition.

Now in the public discussion Himanen's friends, including professors Manuel Castells and Jukka Kemppinen are still trying to defend Himanen.
Which does not have a big success, because the blue paper is torn to pieces already.

It seems, in future the Prime Minister’s office might create a dedicated fund for this kind of research rather than collecting it from different sources. A proposal to reform government research funding is currently on a consultation round, and the government will decide its stance on the matter in one month.
Or maybe, even better if the parties thought the workshops make this site work. This view is shared by Markku  Koivusalo,  chairman of the Finnish researchers union, according to daily newspaper Savon Sanomat.
One reason was the tight schedule, which came about because the government office had apparently already conducted lengthy negotiations with Himanen and wanted to order the report from him. That´s said Veli-Pekka Saarnivaara, the former head of Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation,
He says that the prime minister’s office decided who would produce a controversial report on strategies for sustainable growth. He found the case exceptional.
Saarnivaara, who retired last autumn, said that Tekes only had to decide whether to join the project or not: the decision to award it to Himanen had already been made.

Tekes viewed the international partners as of such high calibre that the project would be worth funding.
The chair of the board of the Academy of Finland, Arto Mustajoki, said that there was nothing illegal in the process, but that it was still not conducted in the best possible way.

The issue was difficult for the board of the academy, because the proposal came via an unusual route. Only the Academy president Markku Mattila knew of it beforehand.
The Academy eventually decided to fund the research, but only provide half the requested sum. That decision still involved granting Himanen 150,000 euros:
Sure, this kind of future-focused projects are needed, but this is not the best possible way to operate.