THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Pricewaterhousecooper’s (PWC) has been banned from the IT projects of the state government for two years. The government will not renew the contract with PWC in the K-Phone project either. The ban is for appointing an unqualified person.

PWC's contract with K-Phone ended today. Soon after that, the IT department imposed a ban. PWC was earlier excluded from the e-mobility plan.

Swapna Suresh got a job at Space Park in KSITIL which comes under the IT department after producing a fake degree certificate. PricewaterhouseCoopers was Swapna’s consultancy firm. She was appointed after an interview conducted by KSITIL managing director Jayasankar Prasad. Rs 20 lakh was given to PWC for the service of Swapna by KSITIL Consultancy.

Jayashankar’s reporting officer was the then IT secretary Sivasankar. A probe by the chief secretary had found that Sivasankar had intervened for Swapna in getting the contract appointment with KSITIL. She was getting a salary of Rs 1,07,000 monthly in the firm headed by Sivasankar. Agencies investigating the gold smuggling had highlighted it as a great evidence of the relationship between the two.