The parliamentary special committee formed to investigate crisis-ridden cooperatives across the country has been busy writing a draft since Monday.

For almost three months, the committee was focused on discussing the problems of the cooperatives with various stakeholders. In this period, it quizzed almost 50 people related to the cooperatives scam.

The parliamentary panel had also interrogated around 20 people who are in judicial custody in relation to the cooperatives scam.

Based on its findings, the committee is writing a preliminary report

On its last day of interrogation, the special committee on August 23 summoned Rabi Lamichhane, a former deputy prime minister and home minister, and grilled him for over nine hours.

Lamichhane and his former business partner Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai are accused of diverting millions of cooperatives money to the Galaxy 4K tv operated under the Gorkha Media Network, which is now dysfunctional.

While investigating the Gorkha Media Network database, including its main software, the committee found evidence of Lamichhane’s hand in the misappropriation, according to Lekhnath Dahal, a committee member representing CPN (Maoist Centre). Rai’s statement, which remains to be recorded as he is absconding, could substantiate his involvement, Dahal said.

Rai is believed to be hiding in Malaysia since last year. The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) in January issued a diffusion notice against him. Rai, the founding chairman of Pokhara Suryadarshan Savings and Credit Cooperatives, is accused of embezzling over Rs1 billion.

Committee members claim to have found that Gorkha Media Network, where Rai was the chairman and Lamichhane managing director before he joined politics in June 2022, had rerouted around Rs1 billion to the media company from cooperatives around the country. Lamichhane has denied his involvement in the company’s financial transactions.

Lamichhane, however, met Prime Minister and UML chair KP Sharma Oli on September 2. The meeting followed Lamichhane’s interrogation by the Kaski police in connection with the Suryadarshan Cooperatives scam.

“For almost 40 minutes after 5 pm, Lamichhane was with Prime Minister Oli at Baluwatar,” Ram Sharan Bajgain, the press coordinator for Oli, told the Post. “It is natural for the leader of the fourth largest party in the House to meet the prime minister. This has nothing to do with the cooperatives’ issues.”

Though Lamichhane is also rumoured to have met Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba, party secretary Krishna Paudel denied such a meeting.

“Our party President has not met Lamichhane of late as reported in the media,” Paudel told the Post.

Meanwhile, the task of writing the report continues.

“We are still in the process of drafting a preliminary report,” Sarita Bhusal, a probe panel member from the CPN-UML, told the Post. “We are yet to draw definite conclusions.”

However, Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, another panellist representing the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, said that after the discussion with the lawyers on Wednesday, the probe panel is considering consulting the finance ministry, Nepal Rastra Bank and the judiciary before giving the report its final shape.

“Without coordinating with these state organs, no proposed solution to the cooperatives’ problems will succeed,” Pradhan told the Post. “The problem of the cooperatives cannot be solved by holding those who are supposed to return the depositors’ money behind bars.”

So coordination between the three state agencies is a must, Pradhan said, suggesting that arrangements need to be made for the detained cooperatives operators to come out and make efforts to return depositors’ savings.

Nepali Congress member on the committee Dilendra Prasad Badu said that based on the terms of reference they got, the committee has been busy digging up facts.

“We have consulted some lawyers and discovered that there will be no legal hurdles to send our suggestions to the government through Parliament,” Badu told the Post. “There have been discussions with some ministries and we are preparing to discuss the issues with some others.”

The House of Representatives, meanwhile, has extended the term of the committee investigating the misuse of public funds by 15 days.

The House agreed to extend the tenure after Surya Thapa, the committee chair, tabled a proposal saying that the time given to his team was insufficient to probe the issue and substantiate the findings.

Earlier, the committee was to submit a report on September 8. The committee was constituted on May 28, with a three-month mandate. But it officially began its work only after a week.

At a time when the issue related to the misappropriation of cooperatives money has become a hot issue, the local government of Kathmandu has referred seven cooperatives to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of Nepal Police for investigation.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has written to the police bureau to probe and take action against seven cooperatives, the KMC said in a statement.

Among them, six are the saving and credit type whereas one is a multi-purpose cooperative.

A report prepared by the metropolis on the basis of its monitoring from March 29 to June 21 stresses the need for further investigation into those cooperatives.

In its letter to the CBI, the metropolis mentions that while monitoring 40 cooperatives, it found seven in trouble and that they needed to be studied.

CBI spokesperson Hobindra Bogati, however, denied such a written request having been made by the KMC.

“We haven’t received any letter from the KMC seeking investigation on the seven cooperatives, but there are some old cases they want us to look into,” Bogati told the Post.

Sumeru Saving and Credit Cooperative, Square Savings and Credit Cooperative, Rural Development Saving and Credit Cooperative, Satkar Saving and Credit Cooperative, Mahabuddha Saving and Credit Cooperative, and Namo Harati Saving and Credit Cooperative should come under the scope of investigation, as per the KMC’s letter.

Besides, KMC also has recommended investigation into the Adharbhut Multi-purpose Cooperative.

Sumeru Saving and Credit Cooperative is one of the nine cooperatives under the Schedule 2 of the ToR given to the parliamentary special probe committee.