Thiruvananthapuram: In a move aimed at curbing widespread irregularities and corruption in the cooperative banks and societies, the Kerala Government has decided to publish the audit reports of the cooperative banks in a newly-launched portal. Hereafter, the audit reports of the cooperative banks will become public documents, which can be checked by anyone by sitting anywhere at any time.
The new portal, Cooperative Audit Monitoring and Information System (CAMIS), will come into effect soon.
In case of any complaint that is received on the basis of the data given in CAMIS, any competent officer can make an inspection and submit a report to the Cooperative Department if any irregularity is unearthed.
It was Cooperation Minister V N Vasavan who suggested such an auditing monitoring mechanism in order to put an end to the large-scale irregularities in the cooperative banks.
It might be remembered that the Left Democratic Front Government had gone on the defensive after the news of a multi-crore scam in the CPM-ruled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank in Irinjalakuda hit the headlines.
It is in Kerala that the highest number of cooperative societies exists in the country. The total number of societies is 16,112.
In many cooperative banks, no proper auditing takes place on a yearly basis. Even if auditing takes place in society, nobody in the office of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies reads the lengthy audit report of the society. This is the reason why irregularities in cooperative societies do not generally come to anyone's notice.
Now, yearly auditing is going to be made compulsory. The audit reports will be published in the newly launched portal, which is open for public vetting. So, the public will get a clear idea about the profit of the bank, the number of deposits lying in the bank, the total amount of loan given and the details of various projects being undertaken by the bank.
