Kerala govt bans PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2 years, to discontinue KFON contract as well

The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government has banned PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from participating in any project of the Electronics and Information Technology for a period of two years. The state government has also refrained from renewing its contract with the PwC on the Kerala Fibre Optic Network Ltd (KFON) Project which is slated to expire on November 30. It has been learnt that the state government found that the PwC has committed serious lapses in the selection of resource persons for the Space Park project, which has led to the 2-year ban. 

In an order by the Kerala government, it has pointed out that the PwC did not perform a 'comprehensive background' check including educational qualifications in case of appointing individuals for the Space Park project. The Space Park in Kerala - which is slated to be the first state-of-the-art space systems in India - was announced in July 2019 for which the government has leased nearly 20.00 acres of land. The project is being monitored and implemented by the Electronics and IT Department of the state government. 

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"KSITIL has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Private Limited as the PMU in Space Park Project and executed an agreement with them. As per the terms of the contract, the entire responsibility to satisfy the credentials and integrity of the resource persons lies upon PwC. However, it is seen that PwC did not perform a comprehensive background check including educational qualifications in case of appointing an individual in the PMU of Space Park. This is a serious breach of contractual obligations on the part of PwC," the order said.

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Swapna Suresh & PwC booked

Pertinently, it was PwC that had cleared the appointment of Swapna Suresh - a key accused in the Kerala gold smuggling scandal. Swapan Suresh was appointed as the Operations Manager of the Space Park based on the alleged recommendation of then Principal secretary to the CM M Sivasankar. In July this year, Swapna Suresh and PwC were booked by the Kerala Police on the charges of cheating and forgery over submission of fake degrees to secure a job in the state's IT department. 

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The police had charged Vision Technologies along with PwC after the  Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) filed a formal complaint. The trio were charged under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document). Moreover, Suresh was sacked from the IT department after she was accused of smuggling over 30 kg of gold using diplomatic baggage. 

Apart from this, Kerala's Congress faction had also alleged corruption in the decision by the LDF government to rope in PwC in a consultancy project related to e-mobility. The state government had appointed PwC to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on electric vehicle manufacturing in the state, in a bid to put out one million electric vehicles on the road by 2022. Leader of Opposition in Kerala, Ramesh Chennithala had alleged in June 2020 that PwC was appointed for the project without inviting any tenders and also when the firm was blacklisted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

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