Karuvannur Bank | Photo: Mathrubhumi Library
Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Cooperation V N Vasavan admitted in the assembly that a complaint regarding the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank scam was received when Kadakampally Surendran was the minister.
Investigation was launched as soon as the complaint was received in 2019. Action has been initiated as per the probe. Following a thorough inspection at cooperative societies, irregularities were found in 49 institutions and action was taken against 68 people, the minister said.
The government has decided to renovate the audit system as many irregularities were detected in the societies. As part of this move, a 'cooperative audit monitoring system' will be formed. C-DIT will be in charge of this. The institutions which do not perform audit regularly will be marked in `red' in this system. A pop-up facility also will be added to remind these institutions.
Another major reformation is the introduction of computerized audit system in all cooperative societies. Software development for this purpose has been initiated. The officials in cooperative department will be trained to use this software. The laws and rules are being amended as part of switching the manual audit method.
There are moves to appoint an official from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service in the post of Cooperative Audit Director, the minister stated in the assembly. A team of auditors will be formed for the cooperative societies and audit fees will be fixed on the basis of their operation, he made it clear.