Thiruvananthapuram: Transport department secretary’s letter recommending PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to open an office in the Secretariat has been leaked.
The secretary had recommended for PwC to open an office as the employees in the secretariat were not skilled enough to perform specialised jobs.
Earlier there were allegations that the file permitting PwC to open its office in the Secretariat was in its final stage. However, the leaked documents suggest that efforts in this regard were taken much earlier.
The file was initiated by the transport department. There were allegations that the Transport Secretary wrote in the file that all permissions of an office would be granted to them. However, the government had denied all these allegations.
The documents secured by Mathrubhumi validates the allegations raised by the Opposition. The file was forwarded to the government by Transport Secretary K. R. Jyothilal on 27 September 2018 as part of E-mobility project. It was mentioned in the file that some other projects had to be integrated into this and that a ‘back door office’ is very much essential in order to handle such large scale projects.
Jyothilal also wrote that the assistants working in the Secretariat were not skilled enough to carry out such works effectively. Widespread social media campaigning is necessary to bring the benefits of the project to the public and hence the value management proposal submitted by PwC can be approved, the Transport Secretary wrote in the file.
The employees in the office would have drawn salaries exceeding that of the state Chief Secretary. The salary of the project management expert was Rs 3.30 lakhs per month. The others were to draw more than Rs 3 lakhs per month. The government would have spent crores of rupees just to pay the salary of those working in this office.
