Thiruvananthapuram: A committee led by the Kerala Chief Secretary has recommended to blacklist premier consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is under the scanner over the recruitment of Swapna Suresh, now an accused in the gold smuggling case, for the Space Park project.
The committee has recommended removing the firm from all the projects of the IT department. Thus, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) stands to lose out on key projects such as K-FON and Space Park.
Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) has said the government would take a decision on removing the PwC from the K-FON project that aims to provide free internet access.
Six consultants have been working at the K-FON on a two-year contract.
The KSITIL issued a notice to the PwC over recommending Swapna, who had a fake graduation certificate. However, the KSITIL is yet to receive a reply. The committee pointed out that PwC cannot wash its hands off the issue by passing the buck to a third party, Vision Technology.
A recommendation was also made to check the 36 recruitments made to IT Infrastructure Ltd.
The committee, comprising Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta and Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Rajesh Kumar Singh, also sought to bar the public sector officials from using the government seal as it was found that Swapna had used it on her business card.
They also recommended the scrutiny of the call records of IAS official M Sivasankar, who was suspended from service over his alleged links to Swapna.
Swapna turned away initially
The report also mentioned that Swapna had approached the Space Park authorities in last August with a reference from Sivasankar for a job.
However, she was turned away, citing the lack of vacancies. However, Swapna became part of the same project as a representative of the PwC in her capacity as an employee of the Vision Technology.
Swapna’s job with the UAE Consulate ended only on August 31.
The Customs had seized 30kg gold from a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. Swapna Suresh was ousted from the Space Park project after her name cropped up in the case. Swapna along with another accused Sandeep Nair were arrested from Bengaluru by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).