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Download PDF With the government canceling the tenders for small power project last month for lack of transparency in the process, the Power Cell has once again floated a tender restricted to 33 companies that were pre-qualified during the alliance government regime.
The Power Cell resorted to this restricted tender, instead of open one, at the instruction of the power ministry, sources said.
The way the tender is being processed it would unduly benefit a certain group of bidders as the pre-qualification of the participants was made in January 2006, they argued. Some companies including Orion Power Company Ltd of scamster Obaidul Karim, who embezzled Tk 590 crore from the Oriental Bank, were allegedly selected in the previous pre-qualification on the basis of their proximity to the Hawa Bhaban.
On April 21, the caretaker government’s cabinet cancelled two-year old tenders for nine small Independent Power Projects (IPPs) totaling 190megawatt capacity and asked the authorities to float tenders afresh, completing the process within next three months. Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury said that these tenders have been cancelled as there had been questions about transparency in the tendering process.
The Power Cell issued April 25 letters to 33 pre-qualified companies in three groups. The first group of 12 bidders was pre-qualified for 10megawatt small power plant, the second group of 10 bidders for 20MW units and the third group for 30MW units. The third group includes Square Power Company, a venture of the Square Group.
In the letter, the Power Cell said that Request for Proposal (RFP) document would be made available to the bidders to purchase at a cost of Tk 1 lakh. The deadline for submission of the proposal is set on June 4 and a pre-bid meeting will be held on May 17.
This prompted some bidders to contact the Power Cell and say that they had previously purchased the RFP document and they do not want to buy it anew.
On Tuesday, the Power Cell sent yet another letter informing the bidders that they can submit proposals for more than one site and maximum for three sites. It added, the government has decided that the bidders who were qualified for 30MW plants can also bid for 20MW and 10MW plants, and the bidders who were qualified for 20MW plants can also bid for 10MW plants.
“Why would the third group (30MW) be allowed to bid for all categories of small power projects and the first group be restricted to only 10MW? This pre-qualification was done more than a year ago. By now the financial capabilities of many of the bidders have changed. If a fresh pre-qualification is done, I am sure some companies will disqualify and some can qualify for higher capacity power projects,” said one of the bidders.
Another bidder pointed out that a gap of three months is good enough time that calls for fresh pre-qualification of the bidders through an open process. “Pre-qualification process can be complete within 29 days, depending on the commitment of the Power Cell and the tender can be completed within another two months,” he said.
Sources also warn the present way of handling would again lead to yet another controversy.
“We don’t understand why can’t the government go fairly with any single tender. A few days back it just scrapped the tender process of the Sirajganj bid and it also scrapped nine small power contracts in its final stage. Since transparency is important, then this scheme should follow complete transparency,” said an official.
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