Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) has failed to recover from Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) the salary provided to Swapna Suresh, the key accused in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel case, following her appointment as the Junior Consultant in the Space Park.
Earlier the Finance (Inspection Wing-Technical) Department asked the KSITIL to recover Rs 16.15 lakh, minus GST, paid to Swapna from PwC, as it was the global consultancy firm that had recommended her appointment to the plum post.
The Inspection Wing had further suggested that if the agency fails to repay the amount then it should be recovered from officials including M Sivasankar, who was then the IT Secretary and also the KSITIL Chairman.
Sivasankar, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) the other day in the Life Mission bribe case, retired from service last month. Also, the PwC informed the KSITIL that it couldn’t repay the amount paid to Swapna Suresh.
Presently, a case is pending before the court against the Government blacklisting PwC from taking part in tenders with regard to government projects. KSITIL officials said the process of recovering salary of Swapna has become a part of this case. The company also decided not to allocate the Rs one crore due to PwC in the K-FON project till it repays Swapna’s salary.
It was the PwC that appointed Swapna Suresh to the Space Park, functioning under the KSITIL. The IT department had allocated to the PwC a total amount of Rs 19,06,730 towards salary payment of Swapna.
Later when Swapna became the accused in the gold smuggling case and was fired from the job, the Finance Inspection Wing handed over a report which stated that the KSITIL MD should initiate immediate measures to recover Rs 16, 15, 873, after deducting the GST, from PwC.
Upon the company failing to reclaim the amount from PwC, then the money should be recovered in three equal portions from three officials – Sivasankar, then KSITIL MD C Jayashankar Prasad, and Special Officer Santosh Kurup, the Inspection Wing recommended.
A Chief Secretary-headed Committee too directed the recovery of the money from the officials. Earlier the probe revealed that the certificate submitted by Swapna for obtaining the job was fake.
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