PwC was in the crosshairs of CPM 15 years ago

New Delhi: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the multinational consultancy for financial service companies, is at the centre of a row over the ambitious Rs 4,500-crore E-Mobility project of the Kerala government. Interestingly, a 2005 letter written by Left parties under the leadership of the CPI(M), alleging PwC got contracts through unfair means may come to haunt the CPM-led  Kerala government which has appointed the firm as the consultant for the project.

The letter, written to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh, flies in the face of the justifications put forward by the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan government in selecting PwC as the consultant and alleges that the MNC obtained consultancy contracts through the World Bank’s unfair intervention and intimidation.

The World Resources Institute (WRI), a World Bank institution, is assisting Kerala in the E-Mobility project. The state government signed an agreement with WRI in December 2018 for a scheme to promote electric vehicles under the project.

The Opposition has alleged that the chief minister had appointed PwC arbitrarily without inviting tenders. CM Pinarayi Vijayan has, however, dismissed the allegations, saying all norms were followed in awarding the contract.

The Left parties had written the letter on September 23, 2005, raising allegations about the plan to privatise the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

In a note that accompanied the letter, the Left parties described the “game” the World Bank and PwC had played in the award of the contract for acting as consultant.

The PwC had failed to qualify during the bidding process thrice, but the World Bank had intervened every time in an attempt to push the contract in PwC’s favour, the note said.

It said that the World Bank, which was to finance the project, had laid out a condition saying that it could impose one of its consultants or contractors on the DJB for the project.   

The conditions that were used to threaten the DJB and the Delhi government and ensure the contract went to PwC would have a bearing on the World Bank loan, too, and the application for the loan must be withdrawn, the Left parties had said.  

The letter was signed by Prakash Karat, the then general secretary of the CPM; late AB Bardhan, who was the general secretary of the CPI then; Debabrata Biswas, the then general secretary of Forward Bloc; and Abani Roy, the RSP secretary.

Significantly, the Left parties were supporting the UPA government at the Centre then.

As part of the E-Mobility project, the Kerala government signed an agreement with the Swiss company, HESS, in June last year for manufacturing 3,000 e-buses in the state in a joint venture with Kerala Automobiles (KAL), a state-owned company. 

However, it has emerged that the chief secretary had questioned if due processes were followed in selecting HESS.

The finance secretary had also expressed apprehensions about the deal saying the state did not have the resources to procure the buses that cost up to Rs 1.5 crore each.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has alleged that the state government selected PwC as a consultant to circumvent these objections.