metro india news  I hyderabad

A Chinese company that has allegedly submitted fake documents to bag the Jagadulla Hydroelectric Project(JHCL) in western Nepal has now landed at the” Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority(CIAA)” and the Public Procurement Office for further probe. The 106-megawatt peaking run-of-the-river hydroelectricity project is located in Dolpa district.

The project has been dragged into a fresh round of controversy after three bidders, who were in the race to develop the project, accused the authorities of qualifying a Chinese company with zero experience in hydropower construction as “substantially responsive” during the technical bid evaluation. The project will follow the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.

JHCL has picked Jiangxi Construction Engineering (Group) Corporation Limited, a company with allegedly no experience in hydropower development which submitted fake documents to win the contract, according to a complainant.

The technical bid was opened on April 22, and the price bid on May 7, according to information posted on JHCL website. Two complaints have been registered by three other bidders—Sinohydro Corporation Limited, SIL-3HC JVand 2 MG Fewa at the CIAA and the Public Procurement Monitoring Office requesting proper investigation. Sinohydro, another Chinese company, has registered the complaints along with the other two bidders.

In one of the documents Jiangxi Construction Limited claimed that it had built a 102-megawatt project in China. But the photos it submitted showed a 750 megawatts Lower Hydropower Plant actually built by Sinohydro in Zambia, Africa. The three companies demanded to verify the GPS/GIS locations and UTM coordinates to ensure that the works were actually executed by the JV or any of its partners. Another complaint registered at the CIAA stated that the price bid of NRs 13.5 billion, along with the bid amounts of all participating bidders, has been disclosed and published globally through the e-news portal “onlinenepal.com” on April 22. 

Sanjay Sapkota, chief executive officer of JHCL, told that they are launching an investigation on the alleged submission of fake documents. Officials at JHCL had used a VPN to try to locate the projects JCE claimed to have built in China but were unable to trace them. JHCL CEO Sapkota said, “Now the CIAA and PPMO should look into the case related to submission of the fake document and breach of confidentiality. We are in a fix and thinking about what to do next about the future of the project.”