Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Thursday wrote to professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) seeking a refund for the salary paid to Swapna Suresh, a key accused in a gold smuggling case.
According to a letter sent by Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL), Swapna was selected for the post of consultant at the Space Park here by PwC.
The government has also made clear that it won't pay the Rs 1 crore due to PwC for their consultancy services without them refunding the amount paid as Swapna's salary.
Swapna's salary during her time at Space Park was Rs 19,06,73.
Of this, Rs 16,15,873 is exempted from GST. It is this amount that the Financial Inspection Division wants back.
Earlier, in the midst of the gold smuggling investigation, it was also found that Swapna Suresh was not qualified to hold the post of Junior Consultant at the Space Park.
Apparently, the then IT Secretary and KSITIL Chairman Sivasankar, MD Jayashankar Prasad and Special Officer Santhosh Kurup meddled to see Swapna appointed to this post.
If the government does not get back this amount from PwC, directions have been given to get it off the salary of these officers.
During the investigation, Swapna had revealed that Sivasankar, who was also the former principal secretary to the chief minister, had appointed her to the post knowing quite well the details of her qualifications. She said she had not applied for the post or even attended an interview. Swapna said it was Sivasankar who prepared her CV.
Swapna also alleged that Sivasankar had gotten rid of KPMG and replaced it with PwC after the former alerted him that there were serious risks involved in hiring Swapna Suresh.
