The government on Wednesday accepted the report of a parliamentary special probe committee formed to investigate crisis-ridden cooperatives.

The report, which was prepared by crossparty lawmakers, had earlier been submitted to Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire on Monday. Later Speaker Ghimire had instructed that it be forwarded to the office of the prime minister and council of ministers for further action.

“The role of home ministry, Nepal Police and related investigative agencies is crucial, so Prime Minister KP Oli issued a directive in the meeting,” said a minister, adding, “After the home ministry goes through the report, it will proceed to investigation and other procedures.”

On Wednesday, Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal and Home Secretary Gokarna Mani Duwadi also discussed how to implement the report.

“A Cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening approved the report, which will be sent to different government entities including Ministries of Home, Finance, Land Management and Cooperatives,” said Prithvi Subba Gurung, the government spokesperson and the Minister for Information and Communication Technology.

The government has also decided to implement the recommendations from the special probe committee headed by Surya Thapa, a CPN-UML lawmaker.

The report concludes that Rabi Lamichhane, the chairman of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), was involved in misusing millions of rupees from cooperatives when he was the managing director of the now defunct Gorkha Media Network. The report also holds several others responsible for cooperative scams.

The committee’s report calls for action against former deputy prime minister and home minister Lamichhane, along with others implicated in embezzlement of cooperative funds.

The report has said over Rs63 billion was embezzled by cooperative owners from various crisis-ridden cooperatives. It has recommended prosecuting four individuals, including Lamichhane, the then managing director of Gorkha Media Network; chairman Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai; a board member Kumar Ramtel; and initial founder Chhabi Lal Joshi. However, Lamichhane and the leaders of the Rastriya Swatantra Party deny wrongdoing.

The special probe committee was formed on May 28.

Besides chair Thapa the committee had six other members. Sarita Bhusal from the UML; Dilendra Prasad Badu and Ishwari Devi Neupane from the Congress; Lekhnath Dahal from Maoist Centre; Sishir Khanal from RSP and Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan from RPP.