Rewriting cooperative societies

Cooperative societies are believed to cater for the poor who, due to fund-constraint, cannot be expected to operate in any worthwhile income generating scheme on their own in any productive sector.  Unfortunately, as things have turned out, these societies are now better known for their well-orchestrated ways of cheating ordinary people.

This has been repeatedly confirmed by disclosers and newspaper reports that conclude that a large number of the societies are run with the motive of making money causing misery to millions. A Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) report released sometime ago shows that approximately Tk 90.70 billion was stolen by the management of 21 multipurpose cooperative societies in a single year. The money reportedly belonged to more than nine hundred thousand society members.

Gross irregularities including widely practised corrupt machinations appear to be embedded in the very essence of the cooperatives societies in the country. Admittedly, financial irregularities in cooperatives have long been an issue for the ruinous impact on common people, particularly the rural poor who lured by the prospects of good returns eventually end up paupers. This presents a pathetic picture in which the supposedly welfare societies operate only to add misery to the common people. A newspaper report says that as many as 47 per cent of the cooperative societies are virtually ineffective due mainly to internal strife, poor management, political interference and so on. Political interference is reportedly at work in forming few cooperative societies, as a means of grabbing state properties such as forestry, water bodies, khash lands etc.

It is no secret that the most glaring financial fraud committed by Destiny multipurpose cooperative society has caused havoc with millions of its members. Between 2005 (the year of its inception) and 20012, the gang running the house reportedly collected more than Tk 20.58 billion from its eight hundred thousand plus members. The Destiny case no doubt represents the crooked hand of embezzlement that grew not just by the 'ingenuity' it employed in cheating its members (the tree plantation programme being one), but it was the wilful indulgence of the authorities entrusted to oversee and monitor such activities that more than allowed the schemes to materialise. This is the case with most of the cooperatives that have come up over time with the purpose of gratifying the greed of the managing bodies. The TIB report has reflected at length on this by attempting to examine corruption in cooperative societies from two angles - corruption of officials of the cooperatives department and that of the managing committees of different cooperative societies. Clients of these institutions are being cheated by members of the managing committees who take additional money as interest, violating the policy of taking a maximum of 18 per cent.

The number of small cooperative societies across the country in various shapes and forms is innumerable. A majority of these societies operate at district and upazila levels where they find it convenient to draw people's attention, capitalising mostly on the basic human instinct of profiteering. A good deal of the malpractices is due to the incompetence of the overseeing agencies which many believe serves to allow these societies to grow. For, besides parting with the required vigilance, the government bodies involved in various stages such as registration, auditing and inspection of the societies leave ample scope to provide them with escape route. Thus, while on the one hand it is the opportunity offered by the absence of regulatory mechanism that makes these societies thrive, on the other, society members content with the imaginary prospects of profit prefer to keep their dealings away from the public eye at the initial stage. And when they actually do realise their mistakes, it is usually too late.

The dismal state reflects the crumbling of the objectives of an admirable model of public collaboration meant for collective socio-economic welfare in the hands of vested quarters. Most observers will agree that it is not the fault of the people who, enticed by the prospect of quick bucks, join hands with the culprits only to be deluded at the end of the day. The opportunities that the so called cooperative societies exploit in materialising their greed are laid open to them by none other than the agencies responsible to control, regulate and monitor their activities. The need for strong awareness building is also missing, thus indirectly promoting the criminality of the so called cooperative societies.

Given the potential of the sector, there is no denying that run honestly and efficiently cooperatives can deliver wonders in many areas, including productive areas. There are instances of commendable success in the past when cooperative societies were mainly meant for collaboration in productive sectors, such as farming and fishing.

wasiahmed.bd @gmail.com