was by far the closest colleague I had in the global digital government leaders' circuit. Part of it is because of the special relationship between our governments, which extended to the digital government sphere and took us to lead some internationally novel efforts. This included cofounding NIIS, the world's first intergovernmental govtech infrastructure consortium, to jointly develop the core technology of X-Road.
But we got close also because of our styles match. Maija is always very pragmatic, straight-shooting, no time wasting—but also always happy to have a good laugh and some fun, when the occasion is right.
Whichever international meeting she took part in, she always spoke out actively to share what they were doing in Finland, and she made her country noticed for the progress going on. She must be one of the most outspoken Finns there is, knowing the national stereotype of Finns as the most reserved folks on this earth!
It was not just talk that got others' attention, as you see from this chapter. Maija steered the Finnish public sector to a real turnaround in how it was delivering on digital government.
—SIIM
How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in Finland?
I was working in IT in the private sector, and there was an opening to lead the consolidation of state IT services in the State Treasury of Finland. They wanted to build up a department to centrally provide to the public sector infrastructure-level services like network, email, collaboration, data center services.
So, I applied for that role, and I got it. I worked there for five years.
By 2014, there was a situation building up in the Ministry of Finance that the government CIO, my predecessor, was offered some new responsibilities. The heads of the ministry wanted to make a change, and I was asked if I could come in to cover the GCIO role for half a year, because so long appointment could be done just by the decision of the minister. Once I accepted, I was not sure I would not be in this position necessarily for longer.
What Was Your Motivation in Taking Up the Offer, Especially Given the Short Time?
I had seen that goals were not achieved. I had seen there was a sort of mistrust on how the GCIO team was able to deliver and do things. I saw the mistrust in if and how we could digitalize Finland. I wanted to build back the trust and belief that our government, and our ministry, would be able to deliver on digital government.
Of course, I was also very flattered to be offered the position. The Ministry in Finance is called the “super-ministry” in Finland, because they have power to see things through. A job with them was not something I had ever even dreamed about doing.
Did You Have Any Hesitations at All?
When I got the call, I asked how much time I would have to decide. They said ten minutes! I did not hesitate then at all and said “yes” because I thought it was worth a try. I did not even have time to talk to my husband at all. I was actually on holiday and jogging at the time of the call!
I surely did not know exactly what the work would be like. Of course, I had seen and been following from the agency side what was happening. But I did not know what the daily work was like. I was still anyways hoping that I could make some kind of change because of the mistrust in the atmosphere.
What Was the Expectation Laid Out to You or What Were You Called In to Do?
That was also the expectation from the boss when we met the first time. He told me three times: deliver, deliver, deliver.
If You Only Had Ten Minutes to Think, What Gave You the Confidence That You Were the Woman for the Job?
Because of my background from before: I had done tough work and handled responsibility in both the private and public sectors already. Also, the people at the ministry were confident that I could handle a situation that was not so good at the time.
I had been taking care of ICT in the second biggest pulp and paper company in Finland. It was also a multinational company and I had had responsibility over multiple countries all the way to China. The next five years at the State Treasury had given me an understanding on how the government works: what the processes are, how you get money, these sorts of things. I had shown good delivery there; my boss there was very happy with me.
What Is the Institutional Background of the Digital Government Setup in Finland? Why Is the Ministry of Finance in Charge of the Area?
The Ministry of Finance has been taking care of shared or common services in Finland: from financials and human resources to purchasing and real estate. In 2008 or so, the responsibility to steer the municipalities was moved from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Finance. Then they also combined the public sector ICT guidance responsibility there in 2011.
My political boss was the minister in charge of the public administration side in the ministry. We always had two ministers in the house in my time. One handled the state financials, budget, taxation, and such; the other oversaw all the public sector steering, the municipalities, and the common service areas. I did have a civil servant boss as well in the permanent secretary who supported me in how to work with the minister or with the parliament. My own or the government CIO role was officially titled the Director-General of Public Sector ICT Department.
The role is meant for coordination: to get everyone to work together and onboard, to show the direction of where to go. To show what is digitalization and what we want to achieve, what are the benefits. It is a person who needs to put things together, to gather the ideas and persons together, and organize them so that we are able to meet the outcomes. One important part of the role is to negotiate the financials. My staff praised me when I left office that I had gotten all the money we needed!
What Was Going on in the Area of Digital Government in Finland at the Time You Joined?
There had been the first government-wide digitalization or e-services program called SADe from 2009 to 2015. The program had brought money and a strong coordination mandate to the Ministry of Finance for digital government, and the ministry was giving the money to different ministers for making digital service projects.
The Public Sector ICT Department had been there for three years already but not yet combining the whole of public sector steering together at both the state level and for municipalities. A new agency called Valtori had been created, and a law had been adopted to consolidate the state ICT infrastructure together from all agencies to move their relevant personnel and equipment to Valtori. There was also another law in parliament, giving public sector security services responsibility to our ministry.
In Finland, the government program of the current government sets the agenda for work.1 Before I joined the Ministry of Finance in 2014, an external study had come out and influenced the government to start work on a nationwide digital government architecture.2 It included initiatives such as taking over the X-Road from Estonia and implementing it in Finland.3
We had been given more than a hundred million euros to deliver this program. But it was unclear what to do with the money, although the department had their own public sector ICT strategy before. When I went to the first meeting with all the big bosses, they were asking about what we were delivering with the money and with the X-Road. So, we had to figure out the best way to actually use the money, to figure out what we would want to build. A big part of the money was to be used by the agencies to join the