February 21: The number of cooperatives declared problematic by the government has reached one and a half dozen. They were declared as problematic after they failed to return the savings of the general public. After the government declared three more cooperatives as problematic in the last few weeks, 18 cooperatives have now come under the responsibility of the Cooperatives Management Committee.

The Ministry of Land Management and Cooperatives declared Hamro Naya Krishi Cooperative, Krishi Bikas Multipurpose Cooperative and Kantipur Savings and Credit Cooperative as problematic and assigned the committee the responsibility of distributing the assets and liabilities of those cooperatives to the depositors.

Himalayan Bikram Malla, president of Kantipur Savings and Credit Cooperative, has been arrested and the police have started investigation into alleged irregularities. Earlier, in the current fiscal year, three other cooperatives were declared problematic and handed over to the committee.

Section 104 of the Cooperatives Act, 2074 has a provision for the ministry to declare a cooperative as problematic upon the recommendation of the cooperative registrar if it cannot return the depositors’ savings, is in a serious financial crisis and has financial irregularities.

Section 105 of the same Act has a provision that allows the formation of a management committee to manage the assets of problematic organizations and to pay their liabilities.

The committee must be chaired by a former judge of the high court or a person working in a special category in the judicial service, and must have one representative nominated by the government, one representative from the national cooperative federation, two experts in the cooperative sector, one person who is a chartered accountant and has worked in a bank and financial institution for three years, and a member secretary appointed by the government. The committee has the right to investigate the assets and liabilities and to auction them and return the money to the depositors.