District Congress Committee president Satheesan Pacheni has demanded an investigation into the Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) awarding consultancy contract to KPMG, an international professional service company. There should be an investigation into KIAL inking a contract with a firm facing allegations, he said.
“A year after KPMG was awarded the contract worth ₹13.89 crore to make Kannur Airport profitable through aviation and non-aviation revenue, no new project has come up at the airport,” he said.
The concerned authorities including Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should check whether by awarding the consultancy contract to a private company any public money is being misappropriated by the nexus between the administration, the officials and the company authorities.
Mr. Pacheni said it is to be suspected that KPMG was given the contract at KIAL to settle the dispute over the exclusion of the company in connection with Rebuild Kerala.
He further said that KIAL officials should clarify what they have achieved so far with the financial consultancy agreement with KPMG, which has created a heavy financial burden on KIAL, which has not yet made a profit.
The authorities not approving permission for CAG audit in the financial transaction at KIAL, in which the government has a major share, had raised several allegations of misutilisation of public money.
Hence, KIAL's consultancy agreement with KPMG should be subjected to a high-level scrutiny by the CAA in the wake of earlier complaints that public money was being squandered in various ways by the authorities, Mr Pacheni added.
