After receiving complaints that the number of cooperatives committing irregularities is increasing daily, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City is going to regularly monitor the cooperatives under its jurisdiction. The cooperative department of Kampa will monitor the cooperatives in all 32 wards. Taking into consideration the cooperatives that complained about not returning the money taken from the citizens on time, the Metropolitan Corporation intensified the monitoring. Monitoring will be done based on the number of cooperatives in each ward. Devendra Pokharel, Head of the Cooperative Department of KAMPA, informed that there are many complaints about the number of cooperatives defrauding citizens.
"In the first stage, cooperatives operating outside the rules and refusing to return the money of the savers will be monitored", he said. Pokharel, the head of the department, said that in the second phase, others will be monitored and instructions will be given as needed.
If the instructions given by KAMPA are not followed during the monitoring, KAMPA is ready to proceed with the process of action according to the Cooperative Act. All the cooperatives are operated according to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Cooperatives Act, of 2018. Although there has been a decrease in the number of people making complaints about money
fraud in the last 20 days, KAMPA has prepared to monitor the number of fraud complaints this year compared to previous years. A month ago, up to 15 complaints were received in Kampa daily. It is said that now three to four complaints are received daily. Preparations are being made to form a team to start the monitoring work immediately.
Complaints about 118 cooperatives
The depositors have filed a complaint against 118 cooperative societies operating in the Kampa area, saying they have not returned their money. The number of complaints is for the current financial year so far.
Although only 60 complaints were filed in the last financial year, during the six months of the current financial year, there were twice as many complaints as compared to the previous year, said Pokharel, the head of the department. According to Chief Pokharel, most of the complaints are from Kampa inner ward. Where there are many cooperatives. Most of the fraud complaints are of non-refund of savers.
Out of 118 complaints, 47 cooperatives were repeatedly contacted by KAMPA. Some of them have not yet come in contact and some of them have not returned the money of the benefactors. KAMPA is discussing with the remaining 71 cooperative owners and is trying to recover the amount of the depositors. Currently, out of the 1,955 cooperatives of Kampa, the largest numbers are savings and loan cooperatives.
According to the constitutional
provisions, all divisional cooperative offices in the country will be abolished from July 1, 2019, and the relevant local level should regulate cooperatives. It is said that in the future, instead of permitting new cooperatives, KAMPA will focus on improving existing cooperatives by regulating and directing them.
According to the Cooperative Act, 2018, and Kampa's Cooperative Act, 2018, there is a provision that can be legally integrated. Although there are proposals for the operation of new cooperatives, Kampa plans to merge the cooperatives that want to merge and improve the quality of the existing cooperatives. Two cooperatives should be ready to integrate into each other to make the cooperative one. Since many small cooperatives are operating outside the standards, there is a problem, so to manage them properly, they are going to go according to the integrated system
Both the cooperatives that want to be integrated should apply to the cooperative department of Kampa. Then Kampa will proceed with the process according to
nature. The cooperative merger is not done only by the desire of the company, so the directors must have the will. Cooperatives of similar nature can be merged.
