Bangladeshi Orion Power and US-Irish joint venture Cadogan Manning, which are getting unusual favours from the alliance government because of their political connections, made false claims that were very easy to verify but the Power Cell overlooked them.

The cell sent its list of pre-qualified companies to the power ministry for approval. If approved, Orion and Cadogan Manning will be able to participate in the bid for the Sirajganj project. The other pre-qualified companies include AES (US), Marubeni (Japan) and Globelaq (UK).

The Sirajganj project is viewed as a symbol of failure of the alliance government in power sector as it had cancelled a bid back in 2004 when it reached a final stage. If that bid was not cancelled, the project would have started generating power by now.

For the last two years, the Power Cell has failed to float a bid successfully.

Using influence of the 'alternative centre of power' of the ruling BNP, Orion was awarded contract for the 450 MW Meghnaghat-2 power project and Cadogan Manning assured of contract for the Meghnaghat-3 power project in gross violation of rules and regulations.

One of the pre-qualification criteria for Sirajganj power project required that the bidder must have experience of designing, constructing and developing at least 300 MW combined cycle power plants at two sites. The inexperienced bidder may qualify, if it has a partner with such experience but that partner should have a minimum of 10 percent equity in the project.

As neither Orion nor Cadogan Manning has ever built a power plant, they showed names of different experienced power companies, which are holding 10 percent or more equity in their bids for the Sirajganj power project.

Orion named Delta Energy BV of the Netherlands, showing it as holding 70 percent equity of its Sirajganj bid. Orion claimed that Delta has built an 800 MW combined cycle power plant in east Vlissingen in the Netherlands, which is in operation for five years.

But Delta's website says, "DELTA Energy BV plans to start constructing a new power plant in the port and industrial area to the east of Vlissingen in 2007."

This company has never built any combined cycle power plant anywhere though it is experienced in building nuclear and coal- fired power plants.

A well placed source pointed out that Delta does not have any joint venture with Orion and it is not planning to work in Bangladesh.

On the other hand, Cadogan Manning, yet another novice company, used the experience of General Electric (GE) to pre-qualify in the bid. It showed GE's 510 MW combined cycle power plant in Baglan Bay, UK.

Interestingly, Cadogan Manning showed GE/GDSI as its 10 percent equity partner in the bid. As per the criteria, GE's equity alone should have been 10 percent. Sources mentioned that they are unaware of any power company named GDSI. If there is one, it is not involved with GE or Baglan Bay power project in any way.

Again, for more than a decade, GE does not get involved with independent power projects (IPPs) like the Sirajganj scheme. GE never participated in any IPP bids of Bangladesh. "It is highly unlikely that GE has opted for 10 percent equity participation with Cadogan Manning. That is why Cadogan resorted to showing GE/GDSI as its partner, which is visibly unacceptable," noted one source.

A top official of the Power Cell however defended its screening. "About 18 companies showed interest and 12 participated in the pre-qualification process. If we had the power, we would have qualified all the 12 to get a low price for the power project," he said.

When pointed out that the claims of both Orion and Cadogan Manning could be easily proved false, he said, "We qualified them the way they were qualified in the Meghnaghat- 2 and 3 projects."

In Meghnaghat-2, Orion and its partner Belhasa showed Japanese company Nissoeiwi as the lead bidder to qualify in the bid but upon qualification, changed the lead bidder to German Steag. Though such a change is illegal, the government awarded contract for Meghnaghat- 2 to Orion-Belhasa last year. A year has elapsed but Orion could not yet sign the deal as it neither has funds nor experience to accomplish such an enormous task.

The 'alternative centre of power' openly backs Cadogan Manning which pushed for the Meghnaghat-3 scheme on its own from 2003 on the basis of an unsolicited negotiation. Contract for the project would have been awarded by now but it is getting delayed as the Power Cell and other authorities concerned were pressurised to find legal loopholes to justify the unsolicited deal.