Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) management board has clarified that a notice to KSEB Officers' Association president and executive engineer M G Suresh Kumar was issued according to norms.

Alleging that Kumar had misused the Board's vehicles while he was the additional private secretary to former power minister M M Mani, the notice directed him to remit Rs 6,72,560 for the unauthorised use of the vehicles.

Elaborating, the KSEB management said the vigilance wing had reviewed each personal trip Kumar had undertaken and spoke to those concerned. Instead of replying to the show-cause notice running into more than 100 pages, Kumar has been making baseless justifications through the media. The management board also stated that it initiated action against Kumar after examining two files that detailed his travels since 2019. Inquiries by the chief vigilance officer and finance director revealed that Kumar had used the vehicles for unofficial purposes.

The order, allotting a vehicle to Kumar, could not be found in the board's offices, and this was informed to the investigating officer by company and administrative wing secretaries. There was no government order allotting the vehicle to Kumar, the board stated.

It was also pointed out that only government secretaries, heads of departments, private secretaries to ministers, district collectors and senior police officers have been allowed to take official vehicles to their residences.

Kumar should produce relevant documents if special sanction had been accorded to additional, and additional private secretaries to use the vehicle, to commute to and from their residences.

The board refuted the argument that it lacked the authority to initiate disciplinary action against Kumar when he was on deputation. Citing Section 20 of the Kerala Civil Service (Classification, Control and Appeals) Rules, 1960, the board said the deputing official has the same authority as the appointing official to initiate action against an employee for indiscipline. The official also has the authority to examine the employee's actions after the deputation period.

The approval of the deputing officer is required to finalise any punitive action against any act committed during the deputation period. Such an approval is not required after the completion of deputation.

The official concerned could inform the company, with supporting documents, if he had been allowed to use the vehicle for personal purposes without paying. Even if he had been permitted to use the vehicle for personal purposes, he could not use other vehicles, including the one allotted to the chief engineer (distribution central), to travel to his home district. Vehicles allotted to others could not even be provided for official purposes, the board said.

Directors, secretary, chief engineer, financial advisor, chief accounts officer, law officer, legal and disciplinary enquiry officer, chief vigilance officer and the public relations officer could use the board's vehicles, after paying rent, for personal purposes.

The board clarified that Kumar, an assistant executive engineer, was not entitled to use official vehicles for personal purposes.