Corruption Significantly Increases the Capital Cost of Power Plants in Developing Contexts

7 Emerging economies with rapidly growing population and energy demand, own some of the most 8 expensive power plants in the world. We hypothesized that corruption has a relationship with the 9 capital cost of power plants in developing countries such as Bangladesh. For this study, we analyzed 10 the capital cost of 61 operational and planned power plants in Bangladesh. Initial comparison study 11 revealed that the mean capital cost of a power plant in Bangladesh is twice than that of the global 12 average. Then, the statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between corruption and the 13 cost of power plants, indicating that higher corruption leads to greater capital cost. The high up-front 14 cost can be a significant burden on the economy, at present and in the future, as most are financed 15 through international loans with extended repayment terms. There is, therefore, an urgent need for the 16 review of the procurement and due diligence process of establishing power plants, and for the 17 implementation of a more transparent system to mitigate adverse effects of corruption on 18 megaprojects. 19