Right of Reply: Rividhanavi (Private) Ltd responds to CEB’s solar project article

The following is a right of reply sent by Rividhanavi (Private) Limited to the Daily Mirror in response to the article titled ‘CEB’s solar project awarding procedure raises eyebrows’ and published on May 9.

This refers to the article written by Ms Nirmala Kannangara which appeared under the subject heading on page A4 of Daily Mirror on 9th May 2024. There were many allegations levelled against awarding the project to us (i.e. consortium of Lakdhanavi Limited, the Blue Circle Limited and Wind Force PLC). Most of the information presented in the article was either misrepresented and/or misinterpreted. Our consortium has now formed the SPV (special purpose vehicle) company, Rividhanavi (Pvt) Limited, for the development of the project and this answer is sent by the SPV company. We categorically deny all the allegations levelled against our company/consortium. We are pleased to clarify and answer our position as follows. 

“100MW Solar Park Facility in Siyambalanduwa - Response by the Developer, Rividhanavi (Pvt) Limited on the award of the Tender.

The standard tendering procedure followed for substantially large projects like this, is the two envelop system where “Technical Offer” and “Financial Offer” are submitted separately in sealed covers. Technical offer is first evaluated, and technically qualified bidders are shortlisted. Next, financial offers from only technically qualified bidders are opened. If a bidder is not technically qualified, its prices will never be opened or disclosed. 

The tender procedure followed for this 100MW solar park facility tender, the largest tender ever called for a solar power plant with a project value well over USD 125million, was an international competitive bidding process with two envelop system. Project consists of a 100MW Solar Power Plant and a Transmission Facility with 27km 132kV Transmission line and 132kV Grid Substation with a power capacity of 100MW. There were two bidders. Request for Proposal (RFP) for the subject tender mandated comprehensive technical proposal with substantial details and a financial proposal for both Solar Power Plant and Transmission Facility. The proposal by our consortium consisted of 14 large box files whereas the other bidder’s proposal was limited to one 2-inch box file. The other bidder had been disqualified in the technical evaluation stage as a nonresponsive bidder due to insufficiency and incompleteness of technical proposal; anyone who was present at the bid submission would have understood this just by looking at the size of the proposals submitted by the two bidders. Since the other bidder was technically disqualified, their price was never ever opened or stated and therefore, we, or for this matter anyone including public, are unaware of their price. Our financial bid was the only one opened and disclosed to the public. The notion of offering a Transmission facility consisting of 27km, 132kV Transmission line and 132kV Grid Substation of 100MW power capacity worth over USD 25 million at no cost is absurd. 

Nevertheless, the other bidder, appealed to the Procurement Appeal Board (PAB) and their appeal was swiftly dismissed during the initial hearing, upholding the decision by both the Procurement Committee (PC) and the CANC (Cabinet Appointed Negotiations Committee) to award the project to our consortium. 

We reconfirm that our consortium members together have fulfilled the financial requirements over and above the tender requirements. During the negotiations, there was no any reference to or any discussion about matching the other bidder’s price; as explained above the other bidder’s price was not opened and no one was aware of their price. Negotiations were a lengthy process and finally agreed solar plant tariff and Transmission facility semi-annuity payment were for the substantial benefit of CEB and the country; solar plant tariff was reduced by US cents 4.2 and this plant produces 219 million electricity units per annum resulting USD 9.2 million saving per annum to CEB; the final cumulative financial benefit to CEB considering solar plant tariff and transmission annuity payment over the project term is over USD 174 million. 

Lakdhanavi Limited, a member of our Consortium, confirmed that it has never employed any retired GM of CEB or any retired senior employees/engineers of CEB during the last 25 years.” 

Yours sincerely, 
For Rividhanavi (Pvt) Limited 
M J M N Marikkar 
Director/CEO 
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Reporter’s Note-

Although Rividhanavi (Pvt) Ltd, has stated that the consortium members together have fulfilled the financial requirements over and above the tender requirement, never in the tender document does it state that all parties in the consortium together should fulfil the financial requirements, but instead it states that all the members of the consortium should demonstrate a minimal annual average turnover of US$ 75 million as per the tender condition.

Hence, each member of the consortium shall meet 25% of the requirement which is US$ 18.75 million, while one partner shall meet 40% of this requirement, and should demonstrate that they have adequate financial sources, has access to, or has available liquid assets, unencumbered real assets, line of credit and other financial means sufficient to meet cash flow requirements.

Hence, the Project Committee (PC), in its report has noted that non compliances observed in Financial Capabilities of Blue Circle is a deviation, but since the other two partners have more than the required average annual turnover- according to RFP- the PC recommended to proceed with the detailed technical evaluation of the consortium subject to verifying the availability of necessary financial resources to carry out this project while evaluating the financial proposal.
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