Kochi: Unitac paid a commission of Rs 4.25 crore to get the construction contract for the Life Mission project in Vadakkanchery, representatives of the company have told the investigating agencies.

During interrogations by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), they said the amount was paid from the Rs 20 crore received for the construction of houses for the homeless under the project.

In her statements to the investigating agencies, Swapna Suresh, who has been arrested in connection with the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case, said that the consul general of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram had gifted her Rs 1 crore from the commission received for the Life Mission project in Vadakkanchery being implemented by Red Crescent of the UAE.

Sandeep Nair, another accused in the gold smuggling case, received Rs 75 lakh as commission for the same project, the investigating agencies have told the court.

Procedures completed fast

The government procedures for implementing the Life Mission project in Vadakkanchery were completed in a hurry, indicates a letter from the local government department secretary.

Even the Life Mission CEO came to know about the foreign aid for the Vadakkanchery project only hours before the MoU was to be signed with Unitac, a company funded by UAE’s Red Crescent. The letter also states that the MoU was prepared unilaterally by Red Crescent.

Local government secretary T K Jose had sent the letter to the Life Mission CEO on July 11, 2019, asking him to be present for the signing of the memorandum of understanding with Red Crescent that evening. The letter said the project is being implemented directly by Red Crescent. It doesn’t give any further details.

The letter stated that Red Crescent had drafted the MoU to be signed. A copy of the MoU was sent to the Life Mission CEO along with the letter. The CEO got to see the MoU copy only in the afternoon of July 11, 2019, just a few hours before it was to be signed at 5pm in the chief minister’s chamber.

Former principal secretary to the Chief Minister M Sivasankar had intervened to get the procedures for the project expedited. The suspended bureaucrat was in charge of the Life Mission project till about a month before the MoU was signed.

The MoU for any project to be signed with another party has to be prepared by the department concerned, senior officials pointed out. It must then be reviewed and approved by the Law Department before being signed. But only a few hours were available to review the MoU for the Vadakkanchery Life Mission project.

On August 8, Pinarayi had said that the government was only involved in allotting land for the project to Red Crescent and that it was not aware of any other dealings. However, in a press conference on August 10, he said that a memorandum of understanding was signed with Red Crescent.