THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has in his reply to Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday stated that he will examine the matter regarding the denial of audit into the functioning of KIIFB and KIAL appropriately. The Opposition leader had written a letter to the Governor on Monday that major discrepancies and irregularities were taking place in the functioning of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL).
The senior Congress leader had in his memorandum stated that the state government was not allowing an audit by the Comptroller and Audit General as it had much to hide. His letter stated that KIIFB was constituted in 1999 to mobilize funds to develop state’s infrastructure. He further stated that the funds could be mobilised only against the guarantee of the consolidated fund of the state and the original Act had provisions for comprehensive audit of its accounts by CAG.
The letter said that KIIFB had sanctioned projects worth Rs 47,000 crore while it had only Rs 10,000 crore at its disposal and of these, Rs 6000 crore were state grant and petrol and diesel cess. He mentioned that a bulk of the fund in KIIFB account was public money which would have otherwise been accounted in the consolidated fund of the state and hence an audit by the CAG was imperative.
He had also mentioned that a CAG audit at KIAL during 2015-16 had brought out gross mismanagement and corruption. Chennithala, meanwhile, during a press conference on Tuesday alleged that KIIFB had engaged a company Terrenus Consulting for inspecting its projects and an amount of Rs 10 crore was transferred to its account from KIIFB. Interestingly, KIIFB has an appraisal division headed by a chief project examiner with a salary of Rs 2.5 lakh per month
NOD FOR PROJECTS WORTH E45,619 CR T’Puram: Till now the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) has issued nod for projects worth Rs 45,619 crore. Of these, 588 projects to the tune of Rs 31,344 crore are meant for basic infrastructure development while three other projects worth Rs 14,275 crore are for industries. The biggest share is for Works Department - Rs 11,936 crore for 278 projects. Funds sanctioned for other sectors are as follows - power: Rs 5,200 crore, water resources: Rs 4,753 crore, general education: Rs 2,037 crore, health: Rs 2,036 crore and IT: Rs 1,412 crore. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday reviewed the progress of projects above C50 crore implemented using KIIFB funds