It took several House obstructions and rounds of negotiations and meetings to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the misuse of public funds by various cooperatives.

Not only were the parliamentary proceedings paralysed, but the entire national politics was focussed on the dispute over the formation of the probe committee until it was constituted on Tuesday. But now that the committee is in place, when it will start the investigation is still unsure. And no parties, including those on whose demand the panel was formed, have shown any urgency to start the probe.

Following an agreement among the major parties, the House of Representatives on Tuesday formed a seven-member committee headed by CPN-UML lawmaker Surya Thapa.

Its other members are Sarita Bhusal of the UML, Ishwari Neupane and Badri Pandey of the Nepali Congress, Lekhnath Dahal of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Shishir Khanal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

The committee members say they are not sure when the investigation will begin. Neupane said the committee has not even held its first meeting.

It is the chairperson’s responsibility to call the meeting, Neupane said. “We may have to remind him to call the meeting if he continues to delay it.”

Thapa said he has requested the Speaker and the Parliament Secretariat to arrange the office and personnel for the committee. “I am currently in my constituency in Pyuthan. We will get down to business once we get our office and staff," he told the Post.

Other members of the committee, however, say that though the office setup is necessary to start the investigation, holding a meeting and carrying out preparatory work was possible without it.

The panel must prepare its working procedure within the framework finalised by the committee led by Padam Giri, minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs.

The Giri-led panel had agreed on four terms of reference (ToR) for the probe committee.

As per the ToR, the committee will investigate cooperatives facing crisis, their legal and institutional purposes, financial systems, regulations, supervision, and transparency, and make recommendations to the government.

Another task is to recommend measures for the immediate return of savings to the depositors of the crisis-ridden cooperatives identified by the Department of Cooperatives and the Crisis-ridden Cooperatives Management Committee. The parliamentary panel has also been mandated to study and analyse the progress of the savings protection and return by the crisis-ridden cooperatives.

The Department of Cooperatives has listed 20 cooperatives as crisis-ridden, with billions of depositors’ money at risk.

Another task the Thapa-led committee needs to accomplish is tracking the condition of funds from problematic cooperatives. The funds include those allegedly transferred to the Gorkha Media Network which operated the now-shuttered Galaxy 4K television once managed by Rabi Lamichhane, who is the deputy prime minister and home minister in the coalition government, and other companies and organisations.

It will also probe the legality of such transfers, investigate anyone involved in the illegal transfer of funds, and make recommendations to recover the funds.

According to police investigations, billions of rupees from several cooperatives were transferred to the GB Rai-led Gorkha Media Network. He has fled the country, and Interpol has issued a diffusion notice against him.

The committee is tasked with investigating credit cooperatives whose deposits were transferred to run the Gorkha Media Network and other organisations.

Ideal Yamuna Multipurpose Cooperative, Image Saving and Credit Cooperative, Sahara Saving and Cooperative, Samanata Saving and Credit Cooperative, Sano Paila Saving and Credit Cooperative, Supreme Saving and Credit Cooperative, Suryadarshan Saving and Credit Cooperative, Sumeru Saving and Credit Cooperative, and Swarnalaxmi Saving and Credit Cooperative are the ones that injected money into the Gorkha Media Network.

It took weeks for the parties to agree on the ToR as they were sharply divided on whether to name Lamichhane, who has been accused of illegally channelling money from three cooperatives to the media company he jointly led with Rai. The Congress agreed not to name Lamichhane after all the cooperatives linked with the Gorkha Media Network were subjected to probe.

“Our committee has big tasks to accomplish, but the chairperson is not showing any urgency,” said a committee member. The Thapa-led panel has three months to complete its job.