the goan I network
MARGAO
Congress MLA Reginaldo Lourenco on Saturday urged Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to order a probe into the functioning of the Goa State Cooperative Bank, saying the government will be held responsible for any financial crisis resulting in inconvenience to people.
Addressing the media, the three-time Curtorim MLA demanded that the government file criminal complaints against the management, even as he called for a special audit of the bank by NABARD or agencies concerned.
Reginaldo said he had been raising the issues regarding the financial status of the bank, time and again since the year 2012 on various platforms within and outside the Assembly since the time of Manohar Parrikar to his successor Pramod Sawant.
He claimed that the present situation has arisen because of lack of enthusiasm on the part of the government to act against the management of this bank to investigate into various financial aspects
that have occurred in recent times.
He further said there is neither control of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies on the functioning of the bank nor the Registrar has ever conducted an audit of the bank over the years.
Questioning the changing of the statutory auditors by the bank, Reginaldo claimed that in the financial year 2012-13, the statutory auditor M/s Bhandari and Associates had opined that the profit of the bank was overstated to the tune of Rs 33.70 crore. This auditor was replaced, he added.
“Whenever such manipulation of facts and figures and the wrong accounting procedure followed by the management are brought to light, the services of the auditor are discontinued,” he added.
