Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case: Charges framed against M Sivasankar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has initiated proceedings for disciplinary action against IAS officer M Sivasankar, who is under suspension for his alleged links with the key accused in the gold smuggling case.

The government has framed the article of charges and served it to Sivasankar. It is learnt that Sivasankar has submitted his reply to the government on the charges levelled against him. As per top sources in the general administration department, the charges against the officer say that he misused his official position by providing reference to appoint a person, who was also working as secretary to consul general of the UAE, in Space Park under the Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd (KSITL) as operations manager.
It also said that he frequently associated with a foreign consulate official without the knowledge of the government, thereby violating rule 3 (2) and 3 (2B) sub-rule three, five, seven, eight and 10 of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968, and the Centre’s miscellaneous executive instructions regarding contact of members of all-India services with foreign nationals and missions. It further said that the government has found that his association with a person who was later arrested for serious criminal activities has sent a wrong message to the public.
A two-member committee comprising chief secretary Vishwas Mehta and additional chief secretary (finance) Rajesh Kumar Singh had conducted an inquiry into the contractual appointment of Swapna Suresh as operations manager in Space Park.
The committee that probed the role of Sivasankar found that Swapna had approached the authorities concerned for the job with the former IT secretary’s reference. The committee report said that though there were three positions identified in SpacePark for recruitment through PricewaterhouseCoopers, only the post of operations manager was filled through the consultant. The other positions were filled through the internal working arrangement from KSITL. The report found that Swapna approached the special officer for SpacePark in 2019 August, with a reference from the then IT secretary Sivasankar, while still working as a secretary to the consul general of UAE. Also, both the managing director of KSITL as well as special officer for SpacePark had cross-checked Swapna’s reference with Sivasankar, and got it confirmed.
The committee had also recommended that the call list of Sivasankar should be examined in detail so as to unearth the extent of his contact and association with Swapna. Quoting the guidelines of the central vigilance commission, the report of the committee also said that there is no harm in initiating a departmental inquiry against Sivasankar even when a criminal investigation is going on.
If the explanation furnished by the officer is not satisfactory, the government can frame charges against him and hold an inquiry by appointing an inquiry officer of its choice and a presenting officer to present the case. As per the all-India services (discipline and appeal) rules, depending on the findings of the inquiry, any penalty could be awarded to him by the government, ranging from censuring (which is a minor penalty), cutting down increments, reducing the rank of the officer to lower scale and pay, compulsory retirement, removal from the service or retirement from the service.