THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The chief secretary level has recommended to include Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) in the black list. The panel has found that the appointment of Swapna Suresh was following the recommendation of M Sivasankar, former principal secretary of the chief minister. He had not followed the rules. The report of the panel has asked to ban officials of public sector firms using government seal.

Swapna had sought the help of Sivasankar when the customs blocked the gold smuggled through diplomatic baggage. Whether Sivasankar helped directly or indirectly are being probed by the central agencies. Though it was revealed that many top officials had contacted customs for the release of the baggage, the names of them were not divulged.