Private placements in chief secretary's office, KINFRA not up to the mark

Thiruvananthapuram: The probe into the gold smuggling case while exposing the nexus of top government officers and the accused also revealed shady appointments to crucial posts in public offices and undertakings. As it has become evident that bureaucrat M Sivasankar had pulled the strings to draft smuggling accused Swapna Suresh for a major role in the Space Park, some recruitments made to government offices, including those to the special cell of the Kerala Chief Secretary’s office, remain shrouded in mystery. Though the appointments were made via manpower agency, Mint, the authorities of the firm have no clear answers over the recruitment.

At least 90 people, including those at the Chief Secretary's office, were recruited for 22 posts by Mint. It functions out of a single-room at the Church Lane at Thycaud. It touts itself as a 'job consultancy' and provider of 'housekeeping' and HR training services on its website.

The KINFRA pays Rs 19.95 lakh every month to Mint for its services and that also covers the employees' salaries. Mint staff are on board KINFRA or Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation.

The Mint had won the contract over an e-tender invited by the KINFRA two years ago. The Mint had played a role in the recruitments made to the BSNL and Technopark as well.

But the higher-ups at the Mint do not know the background of the employees as was evident during a phone call with a Manorama reporter.

A Mint official claimed that they could not check the employee documents as the office has been shut amid the COVID-19 curbs. However, the people recommended by the client companies are included in the payroll, the person who spoke to the reporter stated.

The government had earlier claimed that Chief Secretary had recruited employees to the special cell. However, this was later found to be wrong.

Excerpts from the conversation:

Reporter: When KINFRA seeks to make recruitment, do you look for new people or recruit those who have been enrolled with your company?

Mint official: It can work both ways. Sometimes, those employees, who were recruited via a previous agency, would be asked to put under our payrolls based on performance.

How does that work?

Even if one agency's contract expires, some employees are allowed to continue till another agency comes on board. Most of the time, there is no need to find new employees.

Some have been caught in controversies. Were they part of any agency earlier?

Don't know. Our clients send us several biodatas. If we could not find the right candidate from those, we look for other options.

Why should an agency help in recruiting those people recommended by the clients?

You should ask all such questions to the KINFRA.