Kerala Government bans PWC for 2 years, to discontinue with the KFON Contract

Price Waterhouse Coopers about the appointment of Swapna Suresh!
Price Waterhouse Coopers banned by Kerala Government for 2 years

The Kerala government has banned Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) from any project of the Electronics and Information Technology for a period of two years. The state government has also refrained from renewing its contract with the PWC on the Kerala Fibre Optic Network Ltd (KFON) Project, the dream project of the state government, which is slated to expire on November 30.

The state government found that the PWC has committed serious lapses in the selection of resource persons for the Space Park project, which has led to the 2-year ban. The contract for the KFON project ends today. The Government has pointed out that the PWC did not perform a ‘comprehensive background’ check including educational qualifications in case of appointing individuals for the Space Park project. The Space Park in Kerala – which is slated to be the first state-of-the-art space systems in India – was announced in July 2019 for which the government has leased nearly 20 acres of land. The project is being monitored and implemented by the Electronics and IT Department of the state government.

Also the appointment of Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the Gold Smuggling Case, was also done by PWC without proper background verification and adequate academic qualifications. Swapna Suresh was appointed as the Operations Manager of the Space Park based on the alleged recommendation of then Principal secretary to the Chief Minister, M Sivasankar. In July this year, Swapna Suresh and PWC were booked by the Kerala Police on the charges of cheating and forgery over submission of fake degrees to secure a job in the state’s IT department.