Although the government brought an ordinance (which has now become a law) with great fanfare for the purpose of regulating cooperatives and returning the sunk money of the savers, there is confusion as to when the savers will get the money back. According to the provisions of the Ordinance establishing an autonomous and powerful regulatory body, the government established the National Cooperative Regulatory Authority on January 14.

 But four months after the ordinance was issued and three months after the establishment of the authority, the government has not been able to appoint four directors including the chairman. 

In the absence of a president, there is a provision in the law to assign a specific category of employees as the president. According to the same arrangement, the Council of Ministers appointed Arjun Prasad Pokharel as the chairman in the first week of January last. The authority has a board of directors consisting of a chairman, an expert member, a chartered accountant, the executive director of Rashtra Bank and the joint secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives. 

With the government appointing the then Secretary Pokharel as the Chairman, Madan Koirala, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives, and Guru Prasad Paudel, Executive Director of Rashtra Bank, are ex-officio members of the Board of Directors of the Authority. But the government has not yet started the process for selecting the chairman and the remaining two members. Since the establishment of the authority, the board of directors has met only five times. Secretary Pokharel has gone on leave due to his service period from this Baisakh 2. Along with this, the Cooperative Regulatory Authority has again become without a chairman. Ravin Dhakal, the spokesperson of the National Cooperative Regulatory Authority, said that although there is no chairman, the decision cannot be made by the board of directors.

'Since there is no chairman, the board of directors could not hold a meeting, so decisions have not been made. But the work of creating a system for registration of savings and credit cooperatives, necessary policies and standards is being done," he said. "A lot of work is being done internally. But the main work related to when to regulate and return the money of less than five lakh savers has not progressed.' 

Cooperative Act provides that cooperatives dealing in savings and loans must be registered with the authority within one year. With that, the work of regulation will have to start. Spokesman Dhakal also said that work is being done including creating standards for regulation. 

The work of the authority is to investigate cooperatives that are about to become problematic and recommend for action. There is a problem because not much work can be done on it," he said. "Five meetings of the board of directors have been held so far. It is true that it is slow to move the work forward when there is a full board of directors including the chairman.'

Similarly, the high-level economic reform suggestion commission chaired by former finance secretary Rameshwar Khanal has also suggested setting a limit on savings to solve the problems of the government sector, stopping the opening of new licenses and branches, and setting a limit of 2.5 lakhs on loans and savings. The commission's recommendation report says, "To arrange sufficient manpower for the problematic cooperative problem solving committee to clean up the accounts of troubled cooperatives," the government will provide funds to the said committee to return a small amount of up to 500,000. 

Spokesperson Dhakal also said that the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has sent a written letter to the Ministry of Finance to establish a fund by estimating the amount for the return of savings less than 5 lakhs. He said that the ministry has already decided to create a revolving fund so that the government can use the money for research through the sale of the assets of troubled cooperatives and officials. "Some staff have also been requested from the National Bank to start the work of regulation," he added, "It takes a lot of time to build a registration and regulation system based on information technology." Although the office has been established, the confusion has increased after the formation of the authority and the appointment of officers and employees. 

The first meeting of the authority has decided to formulate cooperative regulation standards under the coordination of Rashtra Bank Executive Director Paudel. In the authority, there is still work to be done to conduct institutional and management survey (ONM) for department and manpower management, make necessary policy arrangements for regulation, property management (bringing the property of Cooperative Development Board under the authority). The National Bank has prepared a draft for

regulatory standards. Various organizations of the cooperative sector have demanded to amend the said draft as it is for the technical and banking sectors, it does not include the principles, values ​​and recognition of cooperatives. This is the reason why the first meeting of the authority (on January 14) has formed a standard building committee under the coordination of Rashtra Bank's executive director Poudel.  The members of the

committee are Pitambar Ghimire, then registrar of the cooperative department, and Tolraj Upadhyay, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. Now the registrar Ghimire has been transferred and Umesh Dhungana has got the responsibility. 

"The committee will make the draft of the cooperative regulation standards prepared by the National Bank cooperative by including the values, recognition, and principles of cooperatives," the source said, "Since there is a provision in the Act on Cooperatives that the National Bank will make the cooperative regulation standards, there will not be much change in the existing standards." But some provision will be made for the cooperatives.

After the government introduced the ordinance on cooperatives, the expectations of the victims towards the government suddenly increased. They were hopeful that the money sunk in the cooperative would be returned. But the victims have become discouraged because the government has not been responsible in addressing the problems of cooperatives. 

Therefore, although there is sufficient provision in the ordinance for the refund of the saver's money, it is not yet decided when the victim will get the money back. On the one hand, the government has not been able to collect the data of savers who save up to 5 lakh rupees in cooperatives, on the other hand, it is not yet decided when the authority will get the complete form. Although the government has announced in the budget of the current financial year for the return of savings, neither the budget has been allocated nor there has been a discussion about raising other resources.

There is a special provision for the regulation of co-operative societies and the return of sunk money of savers. In the Ordinance, it is mentioned that regardless of what is written elsewhere in the prevailing law, savings of up to 5 lakh rupees accumulated by members of a cooperative society or a cooperative society that has been declared problematic under section 104 shall be paid on first priority.

In case of savings of more than 5 lakh rupees accumulated by the member, there is a provision to pay the member's savings proportionately, if there is no situation where the related organization pays at once. For the purpose of returning the savings amount, the authority has the right to sell the mortgage security taken by the cooperative organization or the management committee in accordance with section 105 of the Cooperative Act.

"Before the sale of the mortgage security taken by the cooperative, the related borrowers are given time to repay the loan of the cooperative organization and if the loan is not paid within that period, such mortgage security auction will have to be sold in increments," the ordinance states, "In case of the sale of such mortgage security, an amount greater than the amount owed by the debtor is obtained, the remaining amount must be paid back to such debtor." 

If a cooperative organization has not returned the savings to its members, the board of directors has acted against the interests of the members, or if the majority of the board of directors have not attended the general meeting, then at least 15 percent of the members have to take over the assets of the organization and apply for permission to form a committee to return the savings and operate the organization.