Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala came up with two more allegations on the Rs 4,500-crore E Mobility project, building on the charges he had raised earlier.
One, the London-based PricewatercooperHouse (PwC) was about to open its office inside the Secretariat. Chennithala said the file connected to the opening of the PwC office required only the consent of transport minster A K Saseendran. "I urge the minister to reject the file," Chennithala said at a press conference here on Thursday.
PwC's 'back-door' office in Secretariat
The opposition leader said four PwC offcials would head the office and quoted from an official order the monthly salaries of the four top PwC officials. Project manager, technology consultant and policy consultant: all three will get Rs 3.34 lakh. The fourth official, called the 'functioning consultant', will get Rs 3.12 lakh.
"These salaries are higher than that of the Chief Secretary, the topmost bureaucrat in the state," Chennithala said. He said the government had also given the PwC office an apt name. 'Back-door office'. “Now that PwC was brought in through the back-door, you could not have asked for a better name,” Chennithala said.
HESS deal already signed
His second allegation sought to give the lie to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's claim that no MoU had been signed with the Swiss company HESS. Chennithala shared a url from the HESS website that shows a news item, dated September 29, 2019, with the headline 'Hess is gaining foothold in India'. It speaks about an agreement that had been signed with Kerala for the manufacture of 3,000 electric buses.
It further says: "The Solothurn cantonal councilor Susan von Sury, who comes from Kerala herself, was instrumental in the conclusion of this agreement."
There is also a photograph that shows transport secretary K R Jyothilal with the HESS CEO Alex Naef and Susan von Sury at the signing of the agreement on June 29, 2019.
The MoU, it appears, was inked at the venue of Evolve 2019, a conference to promote e-mobility, on June 29, 2019. The chief minister on July 1 said that the MoU was only under consideration, had not yet been inked.
Chennithala had charged that the deal was struck behind the back of the Cabinet. To this, the chief minister had said the issue would come before the Cabinet when the time comes for the signing of the MoU.
Pinarayi's silence
The opposition leader also wanted to know why the chief minister had not responded to the objections raised by the chief secretary and the finance secretary against the deal with HESS.