According to international observers and law-enforcement insiders, corruption in both public and private sectors is all but absent. In fact, Finland has topped the index every year over the past seven years, except in 2005, when Iceland came first by a hair.
What accounts for Finland's squeaky-clean record? One reason is that Finnish law targets corruption in all its forms. Judicial guidelines provide for sanctions ranging from fines for minor infractions to imprisonment for up to four years for 'persons of authority' who attempted to deal under the table rather than transparently on top of it.
Other institutional weapons against corruption derive from Finland's membership of the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Finland is a signatory of charters drawn up by both these organisations that are designed to check corruption at every turn.
Mr Koskinen identified many other factors behind the highly corruption-free society: the nation's famously egalitarian society, good governance and rigorously fair civil service.
In 2003, Mr Koskinen told the United Nations Convention Against Corruption: 'The logic goes like this: rules are short, clear, strict and to be taken seriously. Practical circumstances are also taken into consideration. The following typical rule informs a young civil servant, without prior experience, where the threshold of a bribe stands: 'A warm beer and cold sandwich are suitable for a civil servant, but a cold beer and a warm sandwich are very risky''.
High-performing Nordic neighbours Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ranked fourth, sixth and eighth respectively in this year's CPI, and herein lies another reason. The strong moral traditions that pervade all aspects of life across Scandinavia have created a temporal and spiritual environment in which corruption is deprived of the socioeconomic conditions to take root. It helps that the Nordic countries are affluent societies with highly advanced education systems and welfare states.
All adhere to a strong work ethic, with zero-tolerance of employee abuse, and all are pioneers (and have been setting standards for decades) in the area of social equality. The synergy of all these factors keeps corruption well in check.
Finally, there is the matter of faith. The national psyche has been shaped by Lutheran tenets that attach the utmost importance to respect for truth and the concept of fair reward for honest toil.
Little wonder that corruption stands no chance in a land as pure and clean, in terms of its incorruptibility, as the snow that covers it several months a year.
