November 20: Oriental Cooperative, which was announced crisis-ridden twice by the cabinet, is found to have embezzled some Rs 10.84 billion from its members.    
According to the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee’s Office, Oriental Cooperative Ltd had amassed savings of over Rs 10 billion through its nine branches across the country and misappropriated the deposits.    
The cooperative was first declared problematic on November 6, 2017 after it went bankrupt. According to the committee chief Keshab Prasad Poudel, 7,646 members approached the committee office demanding its intervention to get back their deposits.    
The cooperative also faced a case at the Supreme Court for the ‘misappropriation’ of the deposits. Responding to the case, the apex court on February 23, 2020 ordered the cooperative to address the issue. But the implementation of the court verdict is still awaited.    
Assessing that the cooperative is not serious towards addressing the issue, the Ministry of Cooperatives on September 23, 2022 declared it ‘problematic’ for the second time. Following the declaration, former chair of the cooperative Sudhir Basnet has been arrested.    
During his inquiry, Basnet revealed his association with ‘Kohinoor Hill Saving and Credit Co-operative Limited’, ‘Consumer Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd’, and the ‘Vegas Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd’ which have also been identified as ‘problematic’ by the government.    
So far, Oriental Cooperative is found to have collected the deposits by establishing its branches in Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Dang, Surkhet, Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Itahari, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur.    
The government has declared 12 cooperatives as ‘problematic’.    
 

Cooperatives declared problematic by government    
The cooperatives declared crisis-ridden by the government are Standard Savings and Credit Cooperative Limited, Prabhu Saving and Loan Cooperatives Limited, Consumer Savings and Loan Cooperatives Limited, Standard Saving and Credit Co-operative Limited, Standard Multipurpose Cooperative Limited and Lu:Niva Multipurpose Cooperatives Limited.    
Likewise, Pacific Saving and Investment Cooperative Limited, Kohinoor Hill Saving and Credit Cooperative, Kuber Saving and Loan Cooperative Limited, Vegas Saving and Loan Cooperatives, Societal Saving and Loan Cooperative Limited were also declared troubled by the government.    
The committee office has been managing the cooperatives declared crisis-ridden by the government, said Office Chief Poudel, who is also the member-secretary of the committee.    
Most of the depositors doing transaction with the problematic cooperatives have been refunded except for Oriental Cooperatives. Legal recourses were being taken against the troubled cooperatives to refund the remaining depositors at the earliest, Poudel shared.    
Most of the money trapped in the troubled cooperatives is of retired employees, shared Tejnath Pokharel, branch officer of the committee.    
The shopkeepers saving their income in the cooperatives without acquiring additional information about the cooperatives were also duped.    
The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee Office had issued a 15-day notice on November 7 in the name of the board members, debtors, managers and employees of the cooperatives declared crisis-stricken by the government to pay the loan and interest of the liabilities to the depositors and members within 15 days.    
Notices were published in the national-level media, shared Poudel adding that operators of those cooperatives, debtors, managers and employees not paying interest within 15 days will be booked. -- RSS