NCF celebrates the 101th International Day of Co-operative

Kathmandu : Analysts stress on capacity building of cooperatives and increasing awareness among people to yield desired outputs from the sector. Speaker of the House of Representatives Dev Raj Ghimire said the government bodies along with those involved in the cooperative movement should jointly look for solving the present problems seen in few cooperatives.

Ghimire opined his view at a program organized by the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF). The NCF celebrated the 101th International Day of Cooperatives, 29th UN International Day of Cooperatives and 30th National Cooperatives Federation Day on Saturday.

Ghimire said the cooperative movement should exert pressure on the government to take timely initiatives to bring in track the organizations concerned that have been accused of embezzling money of their member depositors. “In many cases, cooperatives are found landed in the problem when the operators consider fulfilling personal interests than overall objectives of the community members,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Cooperatives (DoC) says it has been withstanding increasing pressures from the members who failed to get back their money deposited in cooperatives. The DoC Registrar Namaraj Ghimire said the panicked depositors have turned violent in recent days demanding to recover the money from the problematic cooperatives. “They appear so aggressive that they demand to instantly arrest the cooperatives operators accused for embezzlement,” he said.

Pointing at increasing cases of embezzlement seen in cooperatives in recent days, the DoC Registrar said many cooperative operators have been misinterpreting the provisions in the act to take undue benefits out of the amount they misappropriated. “The Cooperative Act has asked the swindlers of cooperatives to pay cash fines equivalent to the cheated amount along with jail term of up to 10 years.”

Ghimire urged the cooperatives to unveil their whitepapers in order to win trust of the member depositors. “They must be transparent about their financial positions, while they must clearly show their plans to manage their financial assets and liabilities to maintain their credibility in the market,” he said.

Ghimire expressed his commitment that the regulator will not spare from taking action against the cooperatives that cheat the depositors. “If the cooperatives are not kept in track now, the sector will seriously fall in crisis in near future,” he added.

There are more than 32,000 cooperatives operating in the country. They incorporate more than 5.4 million members.

The government has kept cooperatives under high priority, considering it’s as one of the three pillars of the country’s economic system. Although a large number of cooperatives have been doing their bests to uplift lives of the low income people, few of them have been found cheating their depositors.

The United Nations (UN) since 1995 has been celebrating the International Day of Cooperatives. In the 17 Sustainable Development Goals maintained by the UN, it has kept cooperatives in core to meet most of the specified goals.

The NCF President Minraj Kandel said around misconduct done by around one percent of the cooperatives has muddled the entire cooperatives of the country. “While those cooperatives that cheat their members should be punished, the environment should be such created to let run remaining ones that are doing good for the society,” he said.

Deepak Prakash Baskota, founder president of the NCF, said the capacity building of cooperatives is imperative for smooth functioning of the cooperatives. “In addition, the authorities concerned should increase awareness among the people regarding the role of cooperatives for uplifting the community,” he said.

In its effort to help capacity building in cooperatives, the NCF has been collaborating with the Kathmandu University to run ‘Diploma in Cooperative Management Course’ since last year. Amid the program, the federation handed over certificates to 19 graduates from the batch of January-April this year.