It’s my call and I stand by it: IT secretary on Sprinklr deal

TNN | Updated: Apr 19, 2020, 14:48 IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as opposition parties continue to bay for the blood of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the alleged data security breach in a contract the government had signed with a US company –– Sprinklr, state IT secretary M Sivasankar has claimed sole responsibility for the agreement and defended the same.
Sivasankar, who is also the officer on special duty attached to Chief Minister’s Office, told television channels on Saturday that the deal with Sprinklr was his call in the capacity as IT secretary. “It was my call and I stand by it. I had examined all aspects of the deal. Following the State Disaster Management Authority’s projection that Covid cases in the state may grow alarmingly, there was a general decision that a robust technology platform was required to address a crisis of such a magnitude. It was my personal responsibility to choose the technology platform using which we can access actionable data for crisis management,” Sivasankar said.
The senior official said that chief minister Vijayan, who is also in charge of the IT portfolio, had given him permission to go ahead with the plans to use the service of Sprinklr run by a Malayali entrepreneur based in the United States. “There was no need seek legal opinion for placing a purchase order. Mine was a professional decision. I am open to correct it if I am proven wrong. Now the issue has reached the court. Let the court examine it all and reach a conclusion,” he said.
Sivasankar said the service of the company was offered for free and there were no government agencies in the state that could offer such high accuracy data analysis for the management of data pertaining to Covid suspect persons. “Since the Covid situation in the state had started getting better, it might look simple now. But when confronted with an alarming projection, the decision to accept the offer for data processing at zero cost was apropos,” he said.
Meanwhile, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran said the magnitude of the alleged scam behind the Sprinklr deal was bigger than that of the controversial SNC Lavalin deal. The chief minister should resign and face investigation, he said.
He further said that everyone wanted to know as to who brought the Sprinklr company to India and if it had any connections in Bengaluru.
K S Sabarinathan, MLA said chief minister Vijayan cannot absolve himself from the controversy just because his secretary claimed that only he was responsible for the agreement. “It appears strange that such important decisions would be taken only in the official level,” he said.