Govt to Review Laws to Address the Problems of Cooperatives

April 25: The government is preparing to review the legal system to address the problems seen in the cooperatives sector. The government has also pledged to assist in the process of addressing the concerns of the depositors of the cooperatives.    

Minister for Communications and Information Technology and Government Spokesperson and Rekha Sharma shared that the cabinet meeting held on Thursday at the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers took a decision to this effect.

The number of cooperatives declared problematic by the government has reached 18. Such cooperatives have now come under the responsibility of the Problematic Cooperatives Management Committee.

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.

A commission formed by the government to study the problematic cooperatives had suggested to solve the problems of the cooperatives by forming a management committee. According to the suggestion of the commission headed by Gauri Bahadur Karki, the government incorporated the provision for the formation of the committee in the Cooperatives Act itself.

Although the government formed the problematic cooperative management committee six years ago, it has failed to manage problematic cooperatives.

The committee has not been able to distribute the assets and liabilities even in a single case.