Following a report in The Daily Star on relaxation of bid criteria in five areas to accommodate lower quality offers in October, an industry insider lodged a written complaint to the prime minister questioning the transparency of all power projects -- especially the Sirajganj scheme.

This letter, followed by notes from the World Bank on the same issue and a directive of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), has put the Power Cell in a defensive position.

Cell sources said the PMO has asked the Power Cell to have the relaxation of the Sirajganj bid criteria approved by the power ministry. The WB on the other hand suggested that the Cell hire a consultant to handle the bid so that no-one can question the latter's neutrality.

"We will hire a consultant and have the bid criterion approved from the ministry. If everything goes well, the re-tendering of the project may take place around February or March," said a competent Power Cell source.

Earlier on November 19, Brian Lee, posing as an industry operator, wrote a letter to the prime minister saying all the leading independent power producers (IPPs) of the world are staying out of Bangladesh because of lack of transparency, confusing and ambiguous documentation, and delay in taking decisions.

"Since Your Excellency assumed power, not a single IPP project has materialised. This is largely due to the ineptitude of the agencies and their attempts to corrupt and slant the procurement process toward their individual choice of vendors," Lee said, adding that corruption has gripped the process of the Sirajganj project, which is discouraging competent bidders from taking part in the tender.

He pointed out that the original Sirajganj bid criteria sought for quality bidders, but the proposed relaxation of bid criteria will allow almost anyone to qualify in the tender. The previous criterion sought the qualified bidder to have construction, operation and maintenance experience of at least one combined cycle plant of 300 MW. But the new criterion allows bidder to show two plants of two sites totalling 300 MW plant.

"This is analogous to saying that if you can own and ride 20 motorcycles, you are qualified to drive a truck! This is a trickery of the Power Cell to bring an unqualified party to the table.

"It is widely known that the Westmont Group and Hosaf Group had lobbied earlier for this dilution in the past without success. They had then, in the presence of senior secretaries, threatened that they would kill the project if their demands were not met. They not only killed the project but were able to place a former Westmont employee as the director of Power Cell."

Brian Lee urged the prime minister to appoint an international and independent consultant and prepare the pre-qualification and tender documents so that serious bidders once again feel confident to take part in the bids. Otherwise, the Power Cell should follow the qualification criteria used in the Meghnaghat-1 power project.

Following the letter, Power Cell was asked to clarify its position. The Cell on December 1 wrote back to the ministry that it had earlier strongly contested The Daily Star report. It denied the allegations made by Lee, saying the bid's pre-qualification documents were prepared by a high-powered independent committee framed by the government. The Power Cell alone did not take any decision.

The cell also defended appointment of the director, who is a former Westmont employee saying his recruitment was made through open competition. "How is it possible to place a director by a business lobby, where the interview board headed by secretary, Power Division, comprises a professor from Buet, a professor from Dhaka University".

The cell laid out a comparison table of the qualification criteria used in Meghnaghat-1 project, the original Sirajganj bid and the proposed relaxation of criteria, saying of these criteria, the Meghnaghat ones were the most relaxed ones.

The Sirajganj project stumbled in January 2004 when the government arbitrarily cancelled a bid of Bangladeshi Summit power when it was at its final stage. After that the Power Cell of the power ministry floated a tender once again and cancelled it in August due to lack of participation.