Lakdhanavi says does not want tenders outside the duly accepted procedure

• Flags off concerns over 300MW LNG Power Plant at Kerawalapitiya

Lakdhanavi Ltd., yesterday issuing a statement reiterated that it doesn’t want tenders outside the duly accepted procedure and raised concerns over the proposed 300MW LNG Power plant at Kerawalapitiya.

Following is the full text of the statement:

In June 2018, then Hon. Minister of Power & Renewable Energy presented a Cabinet Paper to award the above project to a consortium led by a Chinese company at a huge loss of Rs. 50 billion to our nation. Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) and Standing Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee (SCAPC) had recommended it to be awarded to local company, Lakdhanavi Ltd, which gave the lowest bid. A manipulated Procurement Appeal Board (PAB) reversed that decision leading to the said Cabinet Paper. However, majority of the ministers at that time well understood the treacherous nature of that recommendation and wisely decided to refer the matter to National Procurement Commission (NPC).  

Three out of four members of NPC reported back to the Cabinet that there were numerous flaws in the evaluation of the tender and requested cancellation of the same while one member advised it to be awarded to Lakdhanavi Ltd, based on the TEC & SCAPC recommendation. Cabinet however has not taken any decision yet.

We now understand that a new Cabinet Memorandum is to be submitted on 5 February 2018 wherein the same recommendation, cloaked in confusing set of recommendations, is being made in a bid to cause a huge loss to our nation. When it was attempted last year the USD/LKR exchange rate was Rs. 150. Today it is close to Rs. 180. If this decision is made today, the loss to the nation is a staggering Rs.90 billion. It is our belief that the high officials of the Power & Renewable Energy Ministry, who always favoured this particular Chinese company, have misled the new Minister into submitting this Cabinet Memorandum. This time around the first recommendation is to award the tender, accepting the rejection of our bid by PAB (which too were influenced by the same officials), to the same Chinese led Consortium. 

Confusion is created by a second recommendation that another project is to be awarded to us, Lakdhanavi Ltd. 

We wish to inform all honourable Ministers of the Cabinet and the public that we do not want any project to be awarded to us, outside the duly accepted procedure, which is unlawful. Under the National Electricity Act it is unlawful to award power projects without competitive bidding process unless under a national calamity. We never wanted an unsolicited project having submitted a valid bid accepted by the evaluators. 

Besides this Cabinet Memorandum does not specify the capacity of this new power plant to be awarded to us, location it will be constructed or most importantly at which tariff. The tariff of the Chinese consortium, at today’s exchange rate would be close to Rs. 17 while ours would be Rs. 15.50. It is likely the Ministry would want us to do exactly same power plant awarded at same day to Chinese company but at a lower tariff. We reject this discriminatory and unlawful offer and would do whatever it takes to protect our rights to be awarded to us the project in a proper manner.