When power plants power up corruption

We're disturbed by the carte blanche being offered to those involved with power plants—who, on May 12, again made headlines in connection with massive corruption involving land acquisition for three coal-fired power plants. The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) made the disclosure while unveiling the findings of a study it conducted between February and April this year. As per the anti-graft watchdog, a total of Tk 390 crore was embezzled while acquiring land for these projects—namely the 1,320MW Banshkhali Power Plant in Chattogram, the 600MW Matarbari Power Plant in Cox's Bazar, and the 350MW Barishal Power Plant. And all the usual suspects were there to profit off of it: unscrupulous public representatives, state officials, and the middlemen.

This may be just another case of corruption, but there are important insights to be drawn from here: that corruption continues to be the last word in our notoriously ill-managed energy sector. You see its all-encompassing effects in how environmentally harmful coal power continues to be embraced, despite pledges of renewable energy by the government; in how the corrupt individuals are never held accountable; and in how the same broken system is put to use without question again and again.

The TIB made several other revelations about how the alleged corruption occurred. It said that the money was embezzled in various ways, such as by collecting "commission" from compensations, payment for purchases, grants, and by grabbing land without paying the owners. Also, fake title deeds of government land were made so as to sell the land back to the government. There were instances of excess land acquisition, too. Whereas neighbouring countries reportedly require an average 0.23 acres for every megawatt generated by burning coal—and 0.053 acres in case of LNG—a total of 942 acres of additional land has been purchased or acquired for the three projects surveyed by the TIB. For example, the plant in Barishal should have needed 81 acres, but 310 acres were acquired. In Banshkhali, 660 acres were acquired against a requirement of 304 acres, and in Matarbari, 1,358 acres were acquired against a need of 418 acres. The price of the power produced in these plants was also higher than that of plants in India, China, Pakistan, and Australia.

All this is a sign of a dysfunctional sector that continues to undertake poorly planned and executed projects that hardly benefit the public but grossly and unfairly reward those behind them, making them so hard to dispense with. We urge the government to investigate the allegations brought by the TIB and punish those involved with the three projects, and also formulate a master plan to put the sector on a renewable trajectory for the nation's greater interests.