The process of appointing the chairman, expert members, chartered accountants and staff has not even started
The creation of the National Cooperative Regulation Authority, which was announced by the government through an ordinance to recover the sunk money of the cooperatives, has been confused.
The government has not yet started the process of appointing the chairman, expert members and chartered accountants. Although the office has been established, the co-operatives who are hoping to get back the sunk money are in confusion after confusion in the formation of the authority and the appointment of officers and employees.
The government issued an ordinance last December for the formation of the authority. According to the provisions of the ordinance, the government has assigned the responsibility of the chairman to Arjun Prasad Pokharel, secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, until the chairman is appointed.
Along with this, the official opening of the authority office was also held on January 14. According to the provisions of the ordinance, along with the chairman, the executive director of Rashtra Bank, Guru Prasad Paudel and the joint secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Madan Koirala, have taken the oath of office as directors of the authority.
With the establishment of the authority office, only two meetings have been held so far. The first meeting has decided to formulate cooperative regulation standards under the coordination of Rashtra Bank's Executive Director Poudel.
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 under the authority of the Cooperative Development Board). The National Bank has prepared a draft for
regulatory standards. As the said draft is for the technical and banking sectors, the principles, values and recognition of cooperatives are not included in it. For this reason, the first meeting of the authority (on January 14) has formed a standard-setting committee under the coordination of Rashtra Bank's executive director Paudel. The members of the committee are the registrar of the cooperative department, Pitambar Ghimire, and Tolraj Upadhyay, the deputy secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.
"The committee will make the draft of the cooperative regulation standards prepared by the National Bank inclusive of the values, recognition and principles of cooperatives and make it cooperative-friendly," the source said, "Since the cooperative regulation standards are set by the National Bank, there will not be much change in the existing standards, but some arrangements will be made for the cooperatives." "Nothing can be done without regulatory standards. It will take at least one and a half/two months to finalize the organizational structure of the authority and manage the staff and start work," he said. They are optimistic that the money sunk in the cooperative will be returned. According to the provisions of the ordinance, the authority was also established, but the government was unable to appoint a chairman and assigned the responsibility to secretary Pokharel. There is provision in the ordinance to have an executive chairman in the authority.
Pokharel is the secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. The cooperative is only a division of the said ministry. Only about 25 percent of the ministry's total workload comes from the cooperative sector. Pokharel, the sole secretary of the same ministry, has been designated as the chairman of the authority as an additional responsibility.
Rashtra Bank's executive director Poudel is also the head of the regulation department. He has additional responsibilities of authority. The government has not started the process for the appointment of chairman, expert member, chartered accountant who will be in executive role. According to experts, the authority has not been able to move forward according to the expectations of the victims when the work is carried out only by ex-officio members.
Now Secretary Pokharel is the executive chairman of the authority, the land ordinance brought by the government a few weeks ago has become controversial. Therefore, for the time being, the secretary will have to give more time to the ministry than the authority. Therefore, it is certain that the authority will not be able to increase its speed for a few more months," the source said, "Pokharel is retiring in about two months due to his five-year tenure as secretary, another key issue is how much risk he wants to take while leaving." On the one hand, the government has not been able to collect the data of savers who save up to five lakh rupees in cooperatives, and on the other hand, the authorities have not yet decided when they will get it. 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. The
ordinance has special provisions for regulation of co-operative societies and recovery of sunk money of savers. "Irrespective of what is written elsewhere in the prevailing law in the ordinance, the savings of up to 5 lakh rupees accumulated by members of a cooperative organization or a cooperative organization that has been declared problematic according to section 104 shall be paid on first priority," it said.
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 debtor is given time to repay the debt of the cooperative organization and if the loan is not paid within that period, such mortgage security auction will have to be sold," the ordinance states, "In case of such mortgage security sale, an amount greater than the amount owed by the debtor is obtained, the remaining amount must be paid back to the debtor."
Or other machinery, tools or equipment provided on lease or rent, the government has made provision that such amount should be used only for the purpose of returning the saving amount of the saver member. For the purpose of returning the savings of savers who are at risk, there is a provision that the authority should make a standard and time-bound return action plan and return the savings of savers members.
"All the expenses incurred in managing the property of a troubled organization or association shall be borne by the property of such organization or association," the ordinance states, "After the publication of the notification for the return of savings, the members, savers, creditors and investors of the troubled cooperatives will have to submit claims for the amount they are owed."
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 directors 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 for the purpose of returning the savings of the members and apply for permission to the relevant cooperative monitoring body to operate the organization.
