THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Straying from its core mandate, the previous Pinarayi Vijayan regime’s flagship Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), set up to fund critical public infrastructure projects, spent over Rs 100 crore in 2025-26 on the ‘Ente Keralam’ promotional exhibition marking the LDF government’s anniversary and the ‘CM With Me’ citizen-connect initiative.
The audited accounts of KIIFB for 2025-26 show that Rs 96.44 crore was spent on ‘Ente Keralam’, the exhibition-cum-marketing fairs held across districts in April-May 2025 to mark the government’s fourth anniversary. Another Rs 6.14 crore went to ‘CM With Me’. Both expenditures were incurred under government orders to meet infrastructure-related costs of the programmes and booked as direct project costs.
Development economist K P Kannan said there was, prima facie, no link between KIIFB’s main job of mobilising resources for infrastructure development and its spending on what he termed as political campaigns. “There is an issue of impropriety, and possibly, a misuse of funds,” he said.
Kannan said KIIFB’s funds were largely borrowings, apart from government grants, and should not be spent on advertisements or campaigns. “Even if it is government money, you cannot spend it on advertisements and campaigns. They are supposed to be extremely cost-conscious,” he said. He urged the government to examine the spending and take prompt action, particularly after KIIFB was brought under the finance department’s supervision. “The government should take all these things very seriously,” he said.
The board’s statutory auditor, M/s Suri & Co, drew attention to the spending on both programmes, but did not modify its opinion on the accounts over them. The auditor, however, gave a qualified opinion over another Rs 79.98 crore that KIIFB spent on publicising its projects through outside agencies hired by its media cell.
A qualified opinion means the auditor accepted the accounts as a whole, but could not vouch for this part of the spending.
KIIFB’s rules require bills from media houses carrying out publicity work to be collected for scrutiny and processing. But for Rs 62.39 crore, KIIFB could not produce the media houses’ bills. For another Rs 7.45 crore, the auditor said the bills from the last service provider in the chain were missing.
‘Records did not clearly establish selection norm’
The auditor also said the records provided did not clearly establish how the agencies were selected. In the absence of bills, it had to rely on the media cell’s certification that the work was carried out and the CEO’s approval of the total expenditure.
Most of the `79.98 crore was spent within a short period, with `60.12 crore incurred in the 46 days between February 13 and March 31,
just ahead of the assembly election, the audited accounts show.
KIIFB told the auditor that the agencies were selected through due process and that the rates were reasonable.
It said the publicity was aimed at building its brand and credibility, which it needs to continually raise funds from the markets. Former finance minister K N Balagopal, who was KIIFB vice-chairperson during the period, said the board had acted within its mandate.
“I have not seen the audit report. Normally, they (KIIFB) might meet infrastructure costs for exhibitions. ‘Ente Keralam’ was not just a government campaign programme but also sought to showcase KIIFB’s work,” he said.
On whether KIIFB funds meant for infrastructure could be used for such spending, Balagopal said, “I understand they have a provision for it.”
This is not the first time KIIFB’s media spending has drawn audit scrutiny. Its 2024-25 accounts were also qualified over `30.83 crore paid to agencies without tender. A similar issue was flagged in 2022-23.