Power Cell's handling raises controversy

The Power Cell, in its last week's proposal on the approval of eight rental power projects that the cabinet purchase committee rejected, recommended a bidder in four schemes going against a legal advice and trying to pass the onus of violating the legal issue on the cabinet.
The purchase committee on December 19 returned the proposal to the power ministry and asked to clarify its inquiries about how these eight rental power projects will be provided with gas or petroleum supplies. The purchase committee, however, missed some vital anomalies in the proposal, sources said.
The Power Cell under the power ministry is now preparing its answers for the purchase committee and would submit the proposal again by December 31, sources said. But till now, the cell's self-contradictory stance on promoting a consortium remains unchanged.
Rental power projects are getting high priority from the power ministry as these plants can be installed within 120 days of an agreement for a temporary period and dismantled quickly when large power plants are brought into operation within three years. Power from such plants is typically costlier than that of conventional plants.
The power ministry had planned to have eight rental power plants up and running by next April and generate 300 megawatts (MW) of power to minimise load-shedding problems.
The way the Power Cell is handling the tender has already raised doubts among the power industry operators with some saying this may fail to produce any results.
Sources said the Power Cell recommended a consortium named Energy Prima for four out of the eight bids, totalling 170MW generation capacity in Shahzibazar, Fenchuganj, Kumargaon and Bogra, ignoring the cell's legal consultant's objections.
Energy Prima is a consortium of three companies, local Energy Prima and Hosaf Meter, and Russian telecom and power company Geo-Spectrum.
Energy Prima is a proprietorship company owned by an individual, Moazzem Hossain, who also owns the Hosaf Meter. This is the first time any tendering authority has considered the offer of a proprietary company in a power bid.
Neither Energy Prima nor Hosaf Meter has the experience of installing and operating any rental power schemes in the last three years, a primary requirement for a bidder to qualify in the rental power scheme. Both these companies identify themselves as "local agents". Therefore, the joint venture utilised the experience of Russian company Geo-Spectrum. Again, Geo-Spectrum lacks experience in rental power but the Power Cell overlooked it.
The joint venture formed by these three companies does not follow a legal structure, which the Power Cell admits. Energy Prima produced some electronically gathered documents and signatures of Geo-Spectrum to establish proof of their partnership.
As per the proposal sent to the cabinet purchase committee, the Power Cell's tender proposal evaluation committee (PEC) termed the offer of Geo-Spectrum "unacceptable".
It contradictorily says, "The opinion of the Legal Consultant (for Power Cell) is that as per laws of Bangladesh, the scanned/electronic signature is not acceptable. Though the PEC did not find any other deviation in the proposal of Energy Prima, the PEC does not recommend the acceptance of its proposal due to the legal concerns."
The cell then tried to pass the onus of the legal issues on the cabinet committee saying, "However, if scanned/electronic signature is considered acceptable by the appropriate authority, the proposal of Energy Prima may be considered as responsive."
Sources said Geo-Spectrum's document submitted to the Power Cell shows that its Chairman Mikhail V Kouritsyn appeared before the notary public office at Mohakhali and signed the joint-venture agreement and an authorisation letter. Sources said the signatures of Mikhail in the documents are actually electronic while the notarised document claims that he appeared in person. This is why the cell's legal consultant did not approve the papers; as a result, all other submissions of the consortium automatically become illegal.
The other bidders who were recommended by the Power Cell are: Kaltimex Energy and GBB Power for Bhola 35MW plant, and Alstom for Khulna 40MW, Ashuganj 50MW and Bheramara 20MW.
Sources said as per the instructions of the power ministry, the cell is now revising its recommendations and it is likely to place its recommendations within Monday.