Thiruvananthapuram: An all-powerful Kerala bureaucrat had to make the exit after a tenure plagued by controversies. M Sivasankar, once known as a brilliant bureaucrat, has been embroiled in one controversy after another following his appointment as the secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan.
The latest is his seemingly close links to the main accused in the gold-smuggling operations that were unearthed at the Trivandrum International Airport.
In the last four years, he has found himself in the middle of over half-a-dozen controversies.
Sivasankar’s appointment as the chief minister’s private secretary was unexpected. He was also made the IT secretary.
But following complaints that the functioning of the chief minister’s office was getting affected, CPM leader M V Jayarajan was made the private secretary. Thus, Sivasankar was left with just the post of the principal secretary to the chief minister. He was recently promoted as the principal secretary.
Missteps galore
After the floods in Kerala, the decision to appoint KPMG as a consultant for the Rebuild Kerala initiative had created an uproar. Following this, KPMG had to be replaced.
The mobile app that was developed under the IT department’s initiative to provide compensation to those affected by the floods faced many complaints. While the IT department had claimed that the app was developed for free, it ended up paying Rs 8 lakh for it.
When the state government was winning laurels for the way it was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sprinklr controversy dented its image. The revenue minister blocked efforts to make amendments to the Disaster Management Act to implement the deal. The Opposition used the controversy to attack the government, which was then forced to bow down.
The CPI believes that Sivasankar even foiled the plan to digitise the revenue department. It also denounced the efforts to move the disaster management department from the revenue department and bring it under the local bodies.
Sivasankar also faced the blame for the many problems that plagued the BevQ app that was launched for the sale of liquor in the state after the COVID-19 lockdown was eased.
There is also debate over the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the consultants for the e-bus scheme and the permission given to the firm to open an office in the state secretariat.
A move to set up a digital university under the IT department despite the presence of Kerala Technological University and CUSAT (Cochin University of Science and Technology) in the state came to the attention of many ministers only when the proposal was presented for the Cabinet’s consideration. This peeved many Cabinet members.
The plan to make IIIT-K a digital university and create posts for it was the initiative of the IT secretary.
Besides, Sivasankar also allowed 11 posts to be created in ICFOSS (International Centre for Free and Open Source Software) after it was made a research centre. The ICFOSS functions at Karyavattom in Thiruvananthapuram.
Now, Sivasankar is said to have helped Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, get a job at SpacePark, which falls under the IT department.
He was a regular visitor to her flat in Mudavan Mukal in Thiruvananthapuram, the office-bearers of the residents' association of the building in which Swapna lived till 2018 had claimed.
Dual role
Sivasankar held both the advisory and administrative roles in the state government.
He acted as an adviser by occupying the post of chief minister’s principal secretary. And, as the principal secretary of the IT department, he had the authority to take administrative decisions.
The chief minister would send files of the department he handles to his principal secretary for his opinion. Sivasankar would not write anything on the files. Instead, he would prepare a separate note that would include his opinion and send it to the chief minister.
The CM and the principal secretary of the department concerned had to then take a decision based on Sivasankar’s advice.
At the same time, as the IT secretary, he had the authority to write a file and take decisions on his own.
Previous chief ministers had only private secretaries. The post of the principal secretary to the chief minister was created by the current government to facilitate communication with the central government and other states.
