This lobby representing little known US-Irish joint venture Cadogan-Manning Group wants the Power Cell to approve the project amid guarded secrecy offering advantages that no other private power companies ever received.

Sources said the government last week fired the Power Cell director general as he refused to bow down to pressure from different lobbies seeking to manipulate bids or contract awarding process. The Meghnaghat-3 project is one of the issues that led to his exit.

When Cadogan-Manning Group submitted its proposal last year, it drew no attention of the Power Cell as it did not follow any process and also lacked any plan. The cell said its unsolicited proposal grossly violated the Private Power Generation Policy of Bangladesh.

But the cell later recommended the project as the higher authorities chided it and asked it to process the proposal without questions.

The cell however asked the company to provide an unconditional

bid-bond of $ 3 million as was customary for power projects of similar size. But Cadogan group agreed to provide only a conditional bid-bond, which could not be unconditionally encashed by the Power Cell.

Sources point out that there is no instance of conditional bid-bond for any power project.

As in the case of Meghnaghat-1 AES power project, Cadogan group proposed a power tariff of 2.78 cents per kilowatt hour, but without including the price of gas to be consumed by the plant for power generation. Meghnaghat-1 power tariff included gas price.

Cadogan-Manning Group is apparently a joint-venture between an Irish company called Cadogan Engineering, and Manning Industries of Texas, US. Both the partners lack experience in implementing Independent Power Projects (IPPs), according to sources.

Cadogan Consultants was formed by Scottish company Rendel Palmer & Tritton in 1997, which has experience of some infrastructure projects. Manning Industries is mainly involved in installing used equipment. On its website, it claims that it has helped develop a 120 MW power project but does not say what role it played. It also lists that it was involved in a 600 mw project in Nigeria but without giving the name, location or details of the project. It further claims to have experience in power plants of 2.5 mw to 125 mw but gives no project reference list.

In Bangladesh, power project implementation authorities like the Power Development Board and Power Cell seek companies having experience in building at least 300 mw power projects for setting up 450 mw plants.

A few months ago, one of the businessmen lobbying for Cadogan for Meghnaghat -3 project told this correspondent that he had strong backing at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Although his proposal was in contradiction with the government policies, he was hopeful that it would make its way, he added.

The lobby is pushing the project when the Meghnaghat-2 power project has not been approved due to flaws in its bidding.