The investigative committee, led by former Chief Secretary KM Abraham, found that the KIIFB had approved its own borrowing guarantees after a June 6, 2023 meeting chaired by then‑Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
When the Finance Department had refused to grant further guarantees—citing that KIIFB’s loans were eating into Kerala’s borrowing ceiling—the decision was overturned in a small gathering of four officials, and a government order was issued on March 24 2025.
KM Abraham, who also served as Chief Principal Secretary to the CM and as ex‑officio Secretary of the Finance Department’s infrastructure wing, wielded the authority to issue orders that should have gone through the Finance Secretary, Finance Minister or Cabinet.
Following the audit findings, the KIIFB’s workforce grew from 40 sanctioned posts in 2017 to 498 employees in 2025, most hired through an external agency, and a 2023 salary revision bypassed the state’s approval process.
Particularly alarming was the Rs 203.72 crore spent on election‑period publicity, including ‘Ente Keralam’ and ‘CM with Me’, yet its accounts listed only Rs 21.16 crore under advertising; auditors uncovered Rs 96 crore and Rs 6.14 crore misclassified as infrastructure projects.
The audit committee has already ordered a detailed audit of the publicity spend, and the Kerala Legislature is expected to convene a committee to scrutinize KIIFB’s operations, following opposition warnings of a ‘super cabinet’ in 2016.