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Dismissal of Kerala IDC MD stirs row

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The attempt by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation managing director James K Joseph to fight the well-entrenched corruption in the organisation has cost his job.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government, which assumed office by declaring a war against corruption in government, sacked Joseph six days before his note on referring certain cases involving officers to the vigilance or income tax department was to come up before the KSIDC executive committee.

The cases related to assets the officers had disproportionate to their known sources of income. The matter was to come up at the KSIDC executive committee meeting on September 27.

The sacking order was issued by Industry Minister Susheela Gopalan when Joseph was on official duty at Madras. He was telephonically informed about the termination by industry department principal secretary K Mohandas while he was holding negotiations with the State Bank of India authorities at Madras over rehabilitation of a sick unit.

Although the government appointed Industry Secretary Harjinder Singh as his successor, it did not allow Joseph time till the former’s return from the poll duty in Orissa to hand over the charge. He was asked to hand over the charge to principal secretary K Mohandas pending the return of his successor.

The government also did not serve him the mandatory notice. He would get one month’s pay in lieu of notice period.

Sources in the industries department said that the government had decided to dispense with his service immediately to avoid a face-off in the KSIDC executive committee meeting.

The managing director had submitted a note on August 30 recommending a probe by the vigilance or income tax departments, following failure by some officers to disclose their property details. He had contended that these officers had assets disproportionate to their known sources.

In fact, it was Joseph’s direction to all officers to file their property returns that led to his nemesis. The pro-CPIM Officers' Association felt that the managing director was trying to blackmail them by collecting the details of their assets and liabilities.

The disciplinary action he initiated against some officers confounded their suspicion. The association had taken up the matter with the minister, who asked both the parties to restrain themselves until the elections.

The minister was said to be angry with Joseph for his attempt to pursue the matter in the September 27 meeting of the KSIDC executive committee.

Joseph is said to have tried to infuse professionalism into the promotional agency, but ended up rubbing officers the wrong way when he sought to streamline the operations.

He had tried to ensure uniformity in project appraisals by entrusting the overall charge of the project groups with the executive director. This invited the wrath of the officers since many were to lose their exclusive powers in project appraisals.

His proposal to rotate the officials at reasonable intervals was also not to the liking of the officers, who are well-entrenched in key positions.

The industry circles in the state see the development as a sign of growing influence of the trade unions over the government. They feel that the ouster of the managing director under pressure from the association would send wrong signals to the investors, whom promotional agencies like the KSIDC are trying to woo.

The infighting in the CPIM is also responsible for the state of affairs in the KSIDC. Former chairman K Vijayachandran was removed for his alleged connections with the Save CPIM Forum, which ran a campaign against the official CPIM leadership.

Joseph, a former accountant general, was appointed as the KSIDC chief in 1998 at the behest of a powerful section in the CPIM. His appointment was seen as a reward for exposing the controversial palmolein scandal, which the CPIM had used to its hilt to embarrass the opposition Congress.

A case against former chief minister K Karunakaran in connection with the palmolein import deal is under the investigation of the vigilance department now.

Joseph lost patronage in the LDF when his father-in-law Baby John fell sick and relinquished his ministerial position in the Nayanar cabinet. The CPIM leadership turned against him when Baby John agreed to head the rebel faction. The rebels, who have not been accommodated in the LDF, are toying with the idea of joining the opposition United Democratic Front.

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