Suggestion of establishment of 'Cooperative Authority' for cooperative problem solving

The conclusion of the committee is that there is a lot of 'fake' in the cooperative sector of Nepal. The cooperative sector is dealing with a lot of fakes. Here marriage is fake, anshbandha is fake, remarriage is fake, general meeting is fake. The report is fake. Share members are also faked. The debtors are fake," Thapa said. "At the same time, singer Ramakrishna Dhakal is also being persecuted as a fake debtor. Human assurances are fake. The account is fake. Audit reports are also fake. Overall, illegal activities are being done.'

Among the three pillars of the economy, the co-operative pillar is about to collapse, according to Thapa, the chairman of the committee. "Among the three pillars of the economy, the private sector is iron, the public sector is wood, and the cooperative sector is the weakest pillar. Whenever the pillar is weak, the problem is that it will become weaker because the black cloud of mistrust is trying to destroy the cooperative sector," he suggested is.

The committee, which started working on May 23, held 66 meetings. Although the meeting requested to facilitate the summoning of 29 fugitives including GB Rai to the committee, only statements were taken from those who were available. Thapa said that information and suggestions were taken from 451 people. He informed that 55 people have been interrogated and the statements of 2 people who are on the fugitive list have also been included. During the three months and additional 15 days given to the

committee, statements were made with more than 55 accused and about one and a half hundred officers of cooperative organizations were questioned. In this process, the committee took statements from Raj Bahadur Singh, the son-in-law of the royal family and who is associated with Sumeru Savings and Credit Cooperative, with former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ravi Lamichhane. During the

statement, Dipesh Pun, son of former Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, KB Upreti, Chairman of National Cooperative Bank, Icharaj Tamang, Chairman of Civil Cooperative, etc. also took statements from the employees of the cooperative organizations under the jurisdiction of the committee. Former Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Chabilal Joshi, Roshni Gurung, an employee of Supreme Savings and Loan Cooperative Society in Butwal, have also given statements in the committee. The

committee conducted a financial analysis of 40 troubled cooperatives. Among them, the biggest problem was seen in cooperatives dealing in savings and loans. It has been found that the banks and financial institutions will accept the loan value of the property purchased by investing the funds of the cooperative savers and taking a loan. This directly causes injustice to the savers," said Chairman Thapa. The report has also suggested that the Nepal Rastra Bank should regulate and supervise the cooperatives having total assets of 50 million rupees or more or conducting financial transactions based on the audit report up to June 2081 until the cooperative authority is established.

'In the cooperative law, the state should see to it that if the investment is in trouble while working, if there is a small loss, the members should also cover the loss and if the organization is in trouble due to bad work, the procedure according to the law should be followed, and the cooperative law should be made up-to-date by making arrangements,' the report said. .

It is also mentioned in the report that cooperatives should be divided into A, B and C categories based on their capital/financial operational capacity and that cooperative federations and associations should not be allowed to conduct savings and loan transactions like initial cooperatives.

'The directors of the cooperatives in problem under the supervision of the government have their real estate, bank accounts, passports and travel permits suspended under the supervision of the government, and if they have to go outside the city where the cooperative's head office is located, they must obtain the permission of the relevant government body to open a regular office. If a full solution cannot be achieved within the given period, the report says, "After the declaration of problems, the cooperative management committee should go to the field and manage the organization by a certain working committee." story - break The committee also suggests that there should be a reasonable intervention on the part of the government to solve the current cooperative crisis and for that, the amount of small savers up to five lakhs should be returned through the authority by issuing internal bonds (bonds) in the guaranty of the government. "Government should start a program to recover the amount returned from the assets of cooperatives and debt collection and start work immediately and gradually bring the savings of large savers under the scope of open source tax according to the law and facilitate the return," said the report.

Investigate all the transactions of troubled savings and loan cooperatives and find out the real situation, take legal action against those who wrongly issue loans and misappropriate loans, confiscate their movable assets, recover the money of the savers after collecting the loans, and return the money of the savers, the assets invested by the cooperative The report suggests that it should be confiscated and brought to the name of the government and that the government should return the savings of small savers and after recovery of the loan, the amount should be taken into account.

The chances of co-operatives that have been declared problematic are generally very weak. To adjust the accounts of each cooperative, in view of the size of the latest financial transactions of the cooperative, form a separate working group of 3 to 5 people, including banking experts, cooperative experts and chartered accountants, and provide certain mandates and procedures from the same working group, from the adjustment of assets and liabilities to re-operation or cancellation. The report said. The committee has also suggested to determine the priority regarding the return of the savings amount of the troubled cooperatives.

In the first stage, it is suggested to return the savings from the institutional assets, for this, the institutional assets of the cooperative organization and the assets of its directors and associated persons should be frozen immediately. It has been said that legal and institutional arrangements should be made to take over the property of illegal trading cooperatives and related persons within their respective responsibilities at the central, provincial and local levels, sell them, collect debts, and return depositors' deposits.

In the second stage, if institutional assets are insufficient, it is suggested to return them from personal assets. According to which, confiscation of movable/immovable property of the director/affiliated person and family members and others involved, conversion of immovable property into movable property (sale), determination of the ratio of the amount to be returned based on the preference of the depositor and the available assets, and it is mentioned that the savings should be returned according to the determined priority. .

As cooperatives become problematic, the office may be closed and even the director may be suspended or imprisoned, so there is a tendency to capitalize the interest of the saver's savings by mortgaging the property invested in the loan and disregarding the saver's money and auctioning the loan amount. In this way, it is said in the report that Nepal Rastra Bank should make necessary coordination regarding collecting the loan amount through auction at the market price and providing the remaining amount to the troubled cooperative management committee. The committee has also recommended that the maximum savings that can be kept in the

cooperative and the maximum loan that can be taken should be determined and strictly followed, and that the source of the money brought by the saver should be disclosed in accordance with the law.

When establishing a second-level regulatory body for the regulation of cooperative organizations, it should be given the right to grant the operating license of the cooperative, regularly regulate (issuing rules or give instructions) and supervise, implement the conditions that appear during the supervision, and take action if not. , it is mentioned that all cooperatives dealing with savings and loans and all levels of associations dealing with financial transactions should be given the right to regulate, supervise, implement and take action.

'Cooperatives with total assets of more than 25 million rupees must obtain a financial transaction license within 6 months from the date of formation of the authority, and should be given the right to issue guidelines, standards and procedures for the regulation and supervision of cooperatives as authorized by law,' said the report. , 'After the establishment of the authority, there will be no need for the National Cooperative Development Board and the Cooperative Department, so legal arrangements will have to be made so that the assets and liabilities will be transferred.' It is said to be given. The report also mentions that in urban or semi-urban areas where the presence of banks and financial institutions is dense, the policy of maintaining a small number of cooperatives dealing with savings and loans will be prioritized and consolidation will be given priority, and cooperative banks will also be expanded to the provincial level as needed. The report also mentions that savings and credit protection fund, debt recovery tribunal, credit information center and savings insurance fund should be established as per provisions in cooperative law.