THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Systra, which prepared the DPR of SilverLine project, promised an internal inquiry into the alleged fudging of crucial data for concluding the project as feasible, but, the probe hasn’t been completed yet. Energy conservation expert Jayaraman Chillayil, who filed a formal complaint with Systra France, said after assigning an officer for probe in the first week of February, there hadn’t been any progress in the inquiry. In the initial stage, Systra’s compliance team reviewed the discrepancies levelled by Jayaraman as ‘serious’ and said Systra did not condone such malpractices.
“I have been asked to keep the matter confidential as they were probing the same. As I haven’t received any positive reply even after repeated reminders, I am making the details public now,” Jayaraman, who studied the DPR in detail and pointed out several irregularities, told TNIE.It was on January 5 that Jayaraman sent the first email to Systra France highlighting the discrepancies observed in the preliminary feasibility report and the feasibility report. “In response, I received a message from Guarro Borrell Eduard, Group Strategic Development, saying that he has asked the India team to verify the discrepancies,” Jayaraman said.On January 13, he got a mail from Systra’s Paris office confirming the transfer of complaint to the Indian team.
The complaint contained detailed observations on huge mismatches in crucial figures such as ridership, cost, and compensation in preliminary feasibility report, feasibility report and DPR. “Further I requested more clarity on how they arrived on the crucial figures such as economic internal rate of return (EIRR) and financial internal rate of return (FIRR),” said Jayaraman.
On February 3, Jayaraman got a mail from Deepak Kumar, compliance officer with Systra India, saying that he has started investigation into the complaint. “The compliance function at Systra works independently with an independent reporting line. The allegations made by you are serious and Systra does not condone such malpractices. I am investigating the case on priority. Considering the complexity of the case and the technicalities involved in the project work, it will take some time to complete the review and draw any conclusion,” Deepak said in his email.
As there was no further follow up, Jayaraman wrote to Deepak again. After a few mails, he replied on March 14 that he could not complete the probe as he had been travelling for 10 days. “I would need some time to review the facts, records. Unless I am sure of all the scope of review done from my end, I would not be able to establish the facts. At this point of time, I could not promise you any timeline for the completion of the review,” the mail from Deepak said.
The argument, according to Jayaraman, is a clear indication that Systra went back from the initial promise of a fair probe. “They could make feasibility report of such a massive project in just two months. But, they are unable to investigate a fraud in two months even after all the pieces of evidence are placed in front of them,” Jayaraman said.