NRB asks FinMin to freeze fixed assets

KATHMANDU:

Nepal Rastra Bank has asked the Ministry of Finance to take the lead in freezing fixed assets of six people involved in irregularities at Kist Bank, a class ‘A’ financial institution.

Through a letter dated December 1, the banking sector regulator had requested the Finance Ministry to formally inform various land revenue offices to halt transaction of assets like houses and land belonging to former CEO of the bank, Kamal Prasad Gnawali, incumbent CEO of the bank, Bal Narsingh Gharti, deputy manager of the bank, Manjay Raj Pandey, deputy general manager of the bank, Pragun Shrestha, promoter of Jamko Publication Kishwar Dhakal and his wife.

Although the Finance Ministry received the letter on Monday, it has not been able to act on it so far since NRB has not provided details like names of family members of the accused spanning three generations and their citizenship numbers.

“We wrote to NRB about this today and asked it to provide necessary details so that we can act on it at the earliest,” a high-ranking finance ministry official told The Himalayan Times.

NRB had called on the Finance Ministry to freeze fixed assets of those accused in irregularities at Kist Bank based on a request made by the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range.

Through a letter dated November 25, the police range had asked NRB to freeze fixed as well as liquid assets, like cash parked at banking institutions and stocks, of the six.

The police range made the request a day after Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police rounded up Gharti, Pandey and Shrestha for their involvement in financial irregularities at bank.

During the investigation, CIB had found that high-ranking officials of Kist Bank had extended a loan of Rs 120 million to Jamko Publication by accepting collateral of inferior quality. The investigation had also found that the bank had overvalued the property pawned as collateral and that the credit was not used to expand business as mentioned in the loan request document.

Earlier, CIB had rounded up former Kist CEO Gnawali’s wife, Gauri Khanal (Gnawali), and Jamko Publication’s promoter Khanal, in a case that involved irregularities in extension of loan to the publication. Following this, Gnawali had resigned as CEO of Kist Bank. Since then, CIB has been looking for Gnawali as well but he is at large.

Source: THT