Disclose AL govt’s power, energy deals, BNP urges interim govt

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BNP demands disclosure of power sector contracts

 

Dhaka: The BNP yesterday demanded public disclosure of all the power and energy sector agreements made by the ousted Awami League government.

“The interim government’s first job should have been to make public the agreements so that the public can know how the Awami League gave contracts with public money without any tendering process or without following the public procurement rules,” said Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, a standing committee member of BNP.

The AL government realised that money could be made quickly from the sector without any accountability as electricity is invisible, he said in a press conference held at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office.

“They played a magic show in this sector and mobilised money by cutting people’s pockets and siphoning the money abroad,” said Tuku, the state minister of power during the BNP-led government in 2001-06.

It seems that the power and energy sector was the most corrupt sector during the 16 years of AL rule, said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in his opening remarks.

If the BNP comes to power, the party will review all the issues in the power and energy sector. “We will do what is necessary after reviewing,” he said.

The AL spent about Tk 3.33 lakh crore in the power sector in the 16 years and looted more than Tk 1 lakh crore from the amount in the name of capacity charges, which is a charge the government has to pay whether the plant produces electricity or not, according to the BNP.

“Who and how were the capacity charges fixed in the deals? We want to know how the capacity of a machine [power plants] was calculated and what is the efficiency of the machine. Most of the machines that are receiving capacity charges by sitting idle are defective. They looted public money by installing defective machines and left,” Tuku said.

The previous BNP government had the plan to generate at least 60 percent of power by the public sector, he said.

The AL government moved away from the plan by depending on the private sector to generate nearly 80 percent of the power.

“They kept idle the government-owned power plants and installed private sector plants which took high-capacity charges for years.”

The quick rental power plants are usually installed to address emergency power shortages.

These plants were supposed to operate for two years but have been running for 15 years or more and they have cashed their 75 percent investment without producing any power, Tuku said.

He named the five highest recipients of capacity charges: Summit Group (Tk 10,630 crore), Aggreko International (Tk 7,932 crore), Ultra Power Holdings (Tk 7,523 crore), United Group (Tk 6,575 crore) and RPCL (Tk 5,117 crore).

Besides, Bangladesh paid Tk 1,115 crore to India as capacity charges in the name of power import.

“The Awami League government’s developments in this sector are not sustainable. The economy can collapse in the future due to their misconduct.”

Tuku also raised questions about the corruption in the purchase of pre-paid meters, Sheikh Hasina’s family’s involvement in the Rooppur nuclear power plant and former state minister Nasrul Hamid’s involvement in corruption in the purchase of liquified natural gas.

“Most of the companies that supplied LNG were owned by Nasrul Hamid and looted millions.”