CPN-UML lawmaker Surya Bahadur Thapa Kshetree popularly known as Surya Thapa represents Pyuthan constituency in the House of Representatives. Thapa who comes from journalism background was the Editor of Budhbar weekly newspaper before taking the role of fulltime politician. Thapa who is a member of the UML Central Committer is also a UML Politburo member. Thapa had served as a Press Advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli after 2017 parliamentary elections. Recently Thapa led Parliamentary Special Probe Committee investigated cooperatives scam and has submitted its probe report to the HoR. The government has forwarded the report to concerned agencies for action. Thapa- led panel has recommended prosecution against the erstwhile high-ranking officials of Gorkha Media Network Pvt Ltd for allegedly misappropriating cooperatives fund. Ram Kumar Kamat of The Himalayan Times had a tete-a-tete with Thapa about the investigation into cooperatives scams. Excerpts:
You recently led a parliamentary probe committee to investigate cooperatives scam. How challenging was the job?
When I was given a chance to lead the parliamentary probe, I knew little about cooperatives because I myself was not involved in any process of cooperatives. I had never become a member of a cooperative and had not deposited any money in any cooperatives. I had not taken loan from any cooperatives. I had red a book authored by UML leader Keshav Badal on cooperatives and I also read newspapers to know more about cooperatives scam.
How did did you investigate the issue?
We had four terms of references(ToR). First, we were told to study overall cooperatives sector. Second, we were told to study about regulatory and supervisory bodies. Third we were told to study about those cooperatives that had violated cooperatives laws and the fourth was to investigate disbursement of cooperatives fund into Gorkha Media Network and other companies and to recommend actions against the guilty.
As it was a vague subject, we took time in the initial phase to gather information. We also consulted former coordinators of cooperatives investigation committee, including Keshav Badal, RK Mainali, Deepak Prakash Baskota and Gauri Bahadur Karki. We conducted 66 meetings with stakeholders. We also held sectoral meeting with experts. We quizzed 57 people that were named defendants in cooperative scams or in custody for embezzling cooperatives fund and we have recorded their statement. We brought 47 people from jail to quiz them. We quizzed almost eight office bearers of Gorkha Media Network and eight chartered accountants who had audited Gorkha Media Network company. We worked day and night to complete the investigation and had we not worked hard, we would not be able to submit the report before in the next session of the Parliament and our work would not have generated the heat that it has done now.
We have included more than 15 countries' experience in our report. We found that in our context, experience of Israel, India, UK and Sri Lanka is beneficial. We have also analysed the roles of regulatory bodies in different phases. In 2017, cooperatives were left on self-regulation, keeping them out of the purview of Nepal Rastra Bank and that was a mistake. Therefore, we have suggested to have strong regulation such as an authority to control misuse of cooperatives fund. NRB cannot remain aloof from cooperatives.
Twenty-five cooperatives including those that work at federal, provincial and local levels were problematic. There str 40 cooperatives having similar problems and we have done case studies of those cooperatives. Even after 10-12 years from the day cooperatives are declared problematic, their problems have not been resolved and depositors have not been able to get their savings back. Cooperatives Management Committee should take over the problematic cooperatives much as the NRB takes over the problematic banks. Cooperatives Management Committee should not close cooperatives, but should return depositors money by forfeiting and selling the property of office bearers of cooperatives who have embezzled depositors' money. We found that almost 87 billion rupees deposited in these 40 cooperatives are at stake. We have investigated that were in operation for last 12 years. There are 15 cooperatives that have not been declared problematic but they too have problems.
As far as the fourth ToR is concerned, we studied the disbursement of cooperatives fund into Gorkha Media Network. Gorkha Media Network received 65.54 crores from five cooperatives - Supreme, Sahara and Sanopaila, Surya Darshan and Swarnalaxmi cooperatives. GB Rai run cooperatives in different parts of the country and embezzled 8 billion rupees from eight cooperatives. Of eight billion rupees, GB Rai personally received eight crores. He took Rs 2.58 billion through 49 people. Fraud was committed in all this process. For example, loan has been taken in the name of Rabi Lamichhane from Surya Darshan and Supreme Cooperatives but Lamichhane has not appeared before the concerned party for the loan. He has not put his signature and thumb print in those documents. Neither has he submitted his citizenship certificates. His account has not been opened for the loan and loan amount has not been sent to his account rather the amount was sent to a joint account of three board of directors of Gorkha Media Network, including Lamichhane. There was a provision to run this joint account with the signature of one among three account holders and the money was spent with the signature of one account holder.
All the money that Gorkha Media Network received was from cooperatives but attempt has been made to hide this fact. The money that was received from different cooperatives was spent by erstwhile Managing Director of Rabi Lamichhane, board of directors Kumar Ramtel, Chhabilal Joshi and GB Rai. Therefore, we have recommended to prosecute these four people pursuant to prevailing laws. And we have also recommended action against board of directors and members of loan committee and accounts committee of other 40 problematic cooperatives suggesting that the depositors' money should be returned after selling the properties of the guilty.
What was your panel's findings about Rabi Lamichhane's role in the embezzlement of cooperatives money in Gorkha Media Network?
Although it appears that Rabi Lamichhane was not directly involved in bringing cooperatives fund but he has spent the cooperatives fund. Since it is illegal for a non-cooperative member to take loan from cooperatives and spend loan amount, we have recommended action against Rabi Lamichhane.
Your panel has recorded statement of Lamichhane. What are your comments on his statement before the panel?
Lamichhane who spent more than Rs 22 crores, concealed many facts from us when he came for recording his statement. He said he did not know that GB Rai was also running cooperatives and it was only after he won the by-election in Chitwan that he came to know about it after reading newspapers. Lamihhane telephoned me to say that during his by-election in Chitwan many cooperatives scam victim came to him and sought return of their savings. Although Lamichhane said that he had not embezzle even one rupee from Cooperatives but that was not true because Lamichhane got 15 per cent sweat share which was Rs 180000000. He also got 1.7 million rupees advance payment and he received a whopping salary of 500,000 rupees per month. These are all cooperatives money. Subsequently Rs 22.46 crore came directly from five cooperatives.
Do you think the government will act on your panel's recommendations?
We had called the PM in our panel's 63rd meeting and sought his commitment to implement our panel's recommendations. The PM had said that he would accord high priority to seeking return of depositors' money and media outlets had telecast the meeting live. Immediately after two days we submitted our report to the HoR, the Cabinet acted on the report and sent our report to concerned agencies for implementation. It was only after we submitted our report that the erstwhile Board of Directors Chhabilal Joshi was arrested and now, he is being probed. If the government does not act on our panel's recommendations, our whole economy will be in trouble. Depositors Rs 275 billion is at stake and if it is not practical to seek return of all that money, at lest it should be returned gradually. Twenty to 29 per cent liquidity needs to be maintained at banks. I also met Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak who assured me that the report would be implemented. I am confident that the government would implement the recommendations and restore people's faith in cooperatives.
How was it possible that huge amount depositors' money was embezzled and the government bodies were unaware of the incidents?
In 2017 when new cooperative laws were enacted, NRB control was removed from cooperatives. Earlier, 34-35 cooperatives were established under the control of NRB. Cooperatives were left for self-regulations and that was arbitrary. The basic principle of self-regulation was that the members of the cooperatives would know their board of directors and vice versa. Although one person cannot open two cooperatives, GB Rai was involved in seven cooperatives. All tiers of governments- federal, provincial and local government were unaware of GB Rai mobisling eight billion rupees. The government was cent percent unsuccessful in checking embezzlement of cooperatives fund. There was a collusion to embezzle cooperatives fund.
The basic principle was that cooperatives should be registered in catchment area but we saw that Kohalpur, Banke people registering cooperatives in Bhaktapur district and they expanded their service centres in Udaypur, Kanchanpur and Dadeldhura. Depositors feel in trap as they were told that they would be given two per cent more interest on their savings. There are two types of people who have exposited their money in the cooperatives- one is the poor who saved money by roasting corns and selling pumpkin shoots and other types of depositors were those who fell in the trap of the scammers who entice them with the promise of providing two per cent more interests on their savings.
