THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Malabar Cements managing director V.B. Ramachandran Nair has been relieved from his charge close on the heels of reports of mismanagement leading to loss of Rs 18 crore to the state public sector undertaking.
Mr. Nair will continue to hold the post of managing director of Travancore Cements. Malabar Cements general manager (works) M. Muraleedhran has been given charge of the managing director, according to a government order in this regard.
Sources said the shake-up in Malabar Cements came in the wake of recent audit reports citing that the PSU suffered a loss of Rs 18.36 crore owing to mismanagement.
Mr Ramachandran was posted at Malabar Cements following the suspension of former managing director K. Padmakumar subsequent to a Vigilance case against him, which has not been proved so far.
According to sources, the audit report in June cited that the Malabar Cements decided on February 2017 to stop the system of paying back the freight charges for sending stock by trucks to dealers and the stock movement was made through rail. This led to increase in costs as the rail charges were comparatively high and the sales also came down, leading to the huge loss.
