April 8: The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee, which was formed by the government to manage the cooperatives that land in trouble due to not being able to return the savings of the general public, is itself in disarray.

The committee has seen four of its chairmen replaced in six years since its inception.

During this period, the government has declared 20 cooperatives as problematic and assigned responsibility to the committee to manage the assets and liabilities of those cooperatives. But so far, the committee has not been able to settle the arrears of even a single cooperative.

In 15 out of 20 cases, the depositors have staked claims of Rs 6.74 billion. The committee said that they are collecting the details of other five cooperatives which have been declared problematic recently.

The tenure of Kashiraj Dahal, who was appointed the chairman of the committee two years ago, ended on Friday. Since then, the work of the committee has come to a standstill after the tenure of two officials, Keshavraj Acharya and DB Basnet, also expired. There are seven officials in the committee.

The Cooperative Act 2074 has a provision for the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee to investigate the assets of problematic cooperatives and settle their liabilities. According to the provisions of the Act, the federal government had formed the committee on January 13, 2018

According to the suggestion given by the Gauri Bahadur Karki Commission formed by the government to study the problematic cooperatives, the provision of the committee was included in the Act. The government also gave the responsibility to lead the committee as its first chairman to Karki. However, due to the change of the government and election code of conduct, he was ousted from the committee within five months.

Yuvraj Subedi, who became the chairman after Karki, resigned although nine months of his term was left after the government appointed him as the chairman of the Commission for the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons. The subsequent presidents Kumar Prasad Pokharel and Dahal led the committee during their two-year tenure respectively.

Karki, who became the first chairman of the committee, says that the committee has not been able to work effectively because the appropriate person was not given the responsibility. "The problematic Cooperative Management Committee has become only a place to recruit workers of political parties," he said, "You can't hunt tigers wearing a fox's coat."

Similarly, the Department of Cooperatives also monitors the cooperatives but does not take timely action.

The department shows interest only after the depositors stage protest on the streets.

The government has declared eight cooperatives as problematic in the current fiscal year. So far, the committee has not been able to completely settle the liabilities of any such organizations.

The committee has been saying that the work has been delayed due to limited resources. While presenting the committee's annual report for the last year, it also demanded vehicles, computers, laptops and manpower to the then Cooperative Minister Ranjita Shrestha. Although the committee demanded to increase the number of employees to 50 and 15 policemen under the command of the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) for peace and security, it has not been fulfilled. At present, 18 employees including office assistant, driver and two policemen are working in the committee.