Govt accomplishes yet another ritual to solve cooperatives related scam; leaving doubts on solving out the actual problems

KATHMANDU, Sept 17: Yet another committee formed by the government has finalized its final report asserting that 40 cooperatives have embezzled a total of Rs 87 billion of their depositors’ money.

The recent parliamentary committee formed to investigate cooperative fraud submitted its final report to the House of Representatives (HoR) on Monday. The seven member committee has ascertained the embezzled amount by the identified cooperatives.

Earlier too, the government had formed a number of such probe committees in the name of giving respite to the victims of cooperatives. In 2013 the government formed a probe commission to investigate cooperatives after many people were left high and dry. The commission had found 22,170 depositors failing to receive more than Rs 10 billion from cooperatives.

Apart from the commission, the government in October 2004 had formed a two-member committee to study the necessary legal structure and institutional provisions for operation of National Cooperative Bank and saving and credit cooperatives.  The Cabinet meeting of 21 August 2012 formed a five-member committee under the leadership of then under-secretary at Finance Ministry Baikuntha Aryal that aimed to relay suggestions on monitoring institutions conducting savings and credit transactions.

That committee also presented a report with suggestions such as restructuring and enhancing the capacity of the Department of Cooperatives, immediately monitoring cooperatives, fixing interest charged by cooperatives, setting a ceiling of deposits, barring advertisements, and making membership at relevant associations compulsory for institutions.

Likewise, the government on 25 January 2013 formed a third such committee, under the leadership of then deputy governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. This committee suggested the frozen assets of crisis-ridden cooperatives, their operators and office bearers be gradually released to manage their financial liabilities.

Despite forming a number of probe committees, the government neither took their recommendations seriously at the policy level nor the problems of cooperatives victims were solved, with an exception of a handful of cases.

In 2015, the government even formed a ‘powerful’ Problematic Cooperatives Asset Management Committee aiming to recover the assets of the troubled cooperatives and to liquidate their assets in order to provide them to the victimized depositors. However, the committee too has hardly accomplished the given task.

This time, the government was forced to form a new probe committee under pressure from the then opposition party Nepali Congress, which blamed the involvement of the Former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane in embezzling cooperative funds. “It was formed not with an intention to relieve the actual cooperative victims,” said an analyst on condition of anonymity.

Due to the government apathy, in over a decade after the scams related to a number of cooperatives surfaced, around 400 victims have reportedly died. Out of these, a large number of the victims were said to have committed suicide.  

 
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