THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) has ulterior motives to destroy KIIFB, Finance Minister TM Thomas Issac has alleged. Speaking in the assembly on Wednesday, Isaac said the CAG did not find any irregularities during its eight periodical audits in the last four years.
"Nobody has ever raised any graft allegations since the inception of KIIFB in 1999. Only the final report, that came in 2019, shows irregularities. The final report was prepared with malicious intention and it is part of a larger conspiracy to malign the economic stability of the state," Issac said during the question hour in the last assembly session of 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Earlier, Thomas Isaac had vehemently argued that the CAG had incorrectly blamed the state’s infrastructure financing body – the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) – for having a borrowing model that was termed as "unconstitutional" by CAG.
In its report the CAG has mentioned in the report that "KIIFB has taken foreign loans violating the Indian Constitution Article 293 (1)". In 2019, KIIFB had taken Rs 2150 crore Masala Bond from London Stock Exchange at an interest rate of 9.723 percent.