Kathmandu, Jan 31: National Cooperatives Regulatory Authority (NCRA) Chairperson Arjun Prasad Pokharel asserted that the Authority was outlining the frameworks for self-regulation of the cooperatives across the country.
During an interaction with the journalists and cooperatives campaigners here today following a recent establishment of the NCRA, Chairperson Pokharel insisted that the cooperatives must run under the self- regulation principle.
Pokharel, also Secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, cautioned that those cooperatives failing to comply with self-regulation will face consequences.
The Authority, established through an ordinance amending the Cooperative Act-2074 BS, is currently working on guidelines and regulatory frameworks for monitoring, supervising and regulating cooperatives.
He said the first meeting of the Authority since he assumed the office made 15 decisions aimed at reforms and regulation of the cooperatives institutions. According to him, over 600 fraudulent cooperatives professionals were doing jail time and 1,500 such professionals were absconding at present. The Authority will work to create framework on the basis of which the depositors saving money in cooperatives will get their money back.
Chairperson Pokharel mentioned that the major objective of the Authority is to maintain good-governance in around 34,000 cooperatives that are under the jurisdiction of all three-tier governments.
Similarly, Om Devi Malla, Chairperson of the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal said that in absence of timely establishment of the Loan Information Centre as mandated by the Cooperatives Act-2074 BS had put millions of cooperatives’ fund at risk.
However, Malla added that the formation of the Debt Recovery Authority had led to recovery of money deposited in the cooperatives. Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions Ltd (NEFSCUN)’s Chairperson Chandra Prasad Dhakal noted that the ordinance brought in order to resolve problems of cooperative sector has failed to mention the issue of repaying savings of depositors.
Bagmati Province Savings and Loans Cooperatives Federation Limited Chairperson Uddhav Sapkota argued that it was inappropriate to set the limitation of cooperatives based on its jurisdiction and thus called for amendment. #cooperative #nepal #NCRA
