In Pokhara Savings and Credit Cooperative, it has been found that 800 million of savers have been embezzled.

In the investigation conducted by the office of cooperative registrar of Gandaki province, it was found that the funds were embezzled in collusion between the members of the board of directors and the manager of the cooperative. According to the investigation report of the

office, it has been found that funds were embezzled by opening fake accounts without collateral. The report has pointed out that the cooperative is sinking due to this reason. Surendra Bahadur Godar, who has been the chairman of the board of directors for 8 years, and Bhishma Pratap Gurung, who has been the manager for 9 years, embezzled 290 million. It is mentioned in the report that they opened a fake account against the Cooperative Act and took money for personal gain.

Similarly, it has been seen in the investigation that while the co-operative is usually allowed to charge a service fee of one percent when investing loans, the borrower from this co-operative has paid a service fee of 2 percent . It has also been found that sometimes the chairman and sometimes the manager take the amount of service fee taken from the name of the organization without depositing it in the cooperative.

Yam Bahadur Pun of Pokhara, who deposited 25 million rupees in the name of himself and his father in the said cooperative two years ago, filed a request to get the money back in the cooperative registrar's office. After not getting the money back, he applied again two months ago . After that, the registrar's office conducted an investigation after 6 other people also submitted an application.

This cooperative has its main office in Pokhara's new market and has a contact office at Amarsingh Chowk. This cooperative has 3 thousand 56 share members. This cooperative was registered in the year 2058. Godar, the chairman of the cooperative, admitted that the amount could not be recovered due to investment outside the cooperative law. ``There is about 700 million investment in real estate . 120 million automobiles are invested in . Must be sold to raise investment in real estate. Those who take loans say that they have not been sold," he said, "Those who take loans on automobiles have no income, how can they pay? What should I do if it doesn't get up?' Gurung, who has been the manager of

cooperative since 9 years ago, informed that 70 percent is invested in real estate and 25 percent in automobiles. 3 years ago, we invested 1 billion 11 million. Now the principal amount is 57 crores and interest 19 crores is yet to be recovered . I am still busy with recovery,' he said, 'There are 2 people who take more than 100 million in debt, there are 20-25 people who take more than 50 million.'

Cooperative Registrar Bhesraj Rizal said that the funds of the cooperative were not able to be returned due to the wanton use of the funds. According to him, a week ago, the board of directors and the manager of the cooperative were called and asked for an explanation. "We have asked them to submit an action plan that can return the money of the savers within a week," said Rizal, "it seems that the money has been embezzled in collusion between the chairman and the manager, contrary to the Cooperative Act." In the preliminary investigation, it appears that the members and officials of the other board of directors are in collusion.'

Rizal said that the preliminary investigation showed that chairman Godar alone embezzled 120 million and manager Gurung embezzled 150 million on the basis of fake documents. "There is no recovery due to embezzlement of funds by creating a fake account," Rizal said, "even after alerting all the members of the board of directors and managers of this cooperative since 2 years ago, there was no improvement."

According to the co-operative registrar's office, 5.5 billion 27 crores have been embezzled in the cooperatives of Gandaki province. Chief executive Surendramani Poudel and manager Nirumaya KC are in custody pending charges of embezzling 1 billion 59 crores in Pokhara's Prime Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Similarly, Raman Poudel, president of Mitramilan Savings and Loan Cooperative Pokhara, is also in jail pending charges of embezzling 330 million from savers.