Human resource crunch mars monitoring of cooperatives
KATHMANDU, OCT 12 -
Though savings and credit cooperatives (SCC) are emerging as major players in the domestic financial market, their effective monitoring still seems a Herculean task, thanks to the acute human resource crunch.
With over 500 SCCs having a turnover of Rs 50 million currently in operation across the country, there are only two specialists to look after them. With the current fiscal year’s budget talking of carrying out supervision and monitoring of the SCCs with annual transaction of more than Rs 50 million by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in association with the Department of Cooperatives, the department has sought two specialists from the central bank for the same.
“We have written a letter to the NRB seeking two experts,” said Sudarshan Dhakal, the registrar of the department. “It will help initiate the task.”
The DOC sought help from the NRB as it lacks specialists to carry out the supervising/monitoring work. In the past also, the central bank had provided experts to train DOC staff.
According to the central bank, it has already assigned two persons on deputation. “One person from the micro-finance promotion and supervision department and one from the financial institutions supervision department have been already sent,” an NRB source said. “They will be involved in training as well as field visits.”
The source, however, said that the NRB cannot take complete responsibility of the supervision and monitoring as mentioned in the budget. “We cannot take complete responsibility of the cooperatives when we ourselves are experiencing a shortage of human resources,” the source said.
Statistics until mid-April show that there are 22,666 cooperatives throughout the country and it is estimated that the number has gone up to 25,000 of late.
Although there are no statistics of cooperatives having an annual turnover of Rs 50 million, the DOC estimates the number to be around 500. Most of them are stationed at Kathmandu, while some are in Jhapa, Biratnagar and Dhangadi.
This year’s budget came up with a supervision and monitoring provision after announcing cooperatives as the third pillar of economic development.
The DOC has its offices in 38 districts and the department sends its employees on deputation for the supervision of the cooperatives. “There is shortage of human resources,” Dhakal said. “The area is ever expanding and we need additional human resources.” Time and again, the department has been complaining of the human resource crisis, he said. Around 65 percent of the total cooperatives are involved in financial transactions, where 11,000 are saving and credit cooperatives and 5,000 are multipurpose cooperatives. All these cooperatives lack effective monitoring, but they have been collecting deposits like commercial banks. As there is involvement of NGOs and the international donor community in cooperatives, experts say the need for monitoring/supervision is ever increasing.
A high-level committee formed to make recommendations on the policy, procedure and institution for solving problems in cooperatives has provided various suggestions to the government. The committee has recommended forming a cooperative saving and credit Act, making a provision of a separate cooperative bank by amending the Banks and Financial Act 2006, establishing a cooperatives ministry and installing corporate governance in the DOC, among others.
Source: Kantipur
Though savings and credit cooperatives (SCC) are emerging as major players in the domestic financial market, their effective monitoring still seems a Herculean task, thanks to the acute human resource crunch.
With over 500 SCCs having a turnover of Rs 50 million currently in operation across the country, there are only two specialists to look after them. With the current fiscal year’s budget talking of carrying out supervision and monitoring of the SCCs with annual transaction of more than Rs 50 million by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in association with the Department of Cooperatives, the department has sought two specialists from the central bank for the same.
“We have written a letter to the NRB seeking two experts,” said Sudarshan Dhakal, the registrar of the department. “It will help initiate the task.”
The DOC sought help from the NRB as it lacks specialists to carry out the supervising/monitoring work. In the past also, the central bank had provided experts to train DOC staff.
According to the central bank, it has already assigned two persons on deputation. “One person from the micro-finance promotion and supervision department and one from the financial institutions supervision department have been already sent,” an NRB source said. “They will be involved in training as well as field visits.”
The source, however, said that the NRB cannot take complete responsibility of the supervision and monitoring as mentioned in the budget. “We cannot take complete responsibility of the cooperatives when we ourselves are experiencing a shortage of human resources,” the source said.
Statistics until mid-April show that there are 22,666 cooperatives throughout the country and it is estimated that the number has gone up to 25,000 of late.
Although there are no statistics of cooperatives having an annual turnover of Rs 50 million, the DOC estimates the number to be around 500. Most of them are stationed at Kathmandu, while some are in Jhapa, Biratnagar and Dhangadi.
This year’s budget came up with a supervision and monitoring provision after announcing cooperatives as the third pillar of economic development.
The DOC has its offices in 38 districts and the department sends its employees on deputation for the supervision of the cooperatives. “There is shortage of human resources,” Dhakal said. “The area is ever expanding and we need additional human resources.” Time and again, the department has been complaining of the human resource crisis, he said. Around 65 percent of the total cooperatives are involved in financial transactions, where 11,000 are saving and credit cooperatives and 5,000 are multipurpose cooperatives. All these cooperatives lack effective monitoring, but they have been collecting deposits like commercial banks. As there is involvement of NGOs and the international donor community in cooperatives, experts say the need for monitoring/supervision is ever increasing.
A high-level committee formed to make recommendations on the policy, procedure and institution for solving problems in cooperatives has provided various suggestions to the government. The committee has recommended forming a cooperative saving and credit Act, making a provision of a separate cooperative bank by amending the Banks and Financial Act 2006, establishing a cooperatives ministry and installing corporate governance in the DOC, among others.
Source: Kantipur
