CENTRE FOR SELF-HELP DEVELOPMENT

Institute of micro-finance and cooperative development.

CSD Organizes Symposium on Fraud Control and Management

The Centre for Self-help Development (CSD), which is one of the pioneer institutions to launch microfinance in Nepal, organized a Symposium on Fraud Control and Management on December 14, 2019.

Opening the forum Chairman of the CSD, Mr. Shankar Man Shrestha, said that fraud has increased in microfinance institutions due to weak monitoring and internal control practice. He added, “Fraud was unheard in microfinance till a couple of years back but risen to epidemic level in recent years. MFIs leader should be vigilant and make regular interaction with the client and field staff.”

The program started with a session of panel discussions of experienced and senior CEOs of microfinance institutions who shared various events of frauds and explained how the cases of fraud took place in their respective organization and what weakness of them led to the situations. It was a session to learn from the mistakes in the past. The panelist outlined that effective monitoring and supervision system is a key to eradicating fraud. The panelist assured that both Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Staff (KYS) should be strengthened to prevent irregularities and fraud in microfinance. They further said CEOs should be aware of the lifestyle of their staff to prevent the fraud.

Mr. Shyam Khatri presented on the process of legal remedies to tackle the problems endemic in microfinance sector. He mentioned that the bank and financial institutions can themselves formulate bylaws in conjunction with relevant acts of the government to tackle banking fraud in their particular organization and such bylaws will have legal repercussions. Resource person Mr. Roop Bahadur Khadka led a discussion on how internal control and effective monitoring and supervision can prevent different kinds of frauds, embezzlements and irregularities by staffs. He said research finding has stated that 20% staff are very honest, 20% very doubtful and 60% could be controlled by effective control system. He urged CEOs to be vigilant and follow precautionary measures.

The symposium passed a five point way forward. It was participated by 45 microfinance officials from 23 MFIs and microfinance cooperatives.

Way Forward

• Strictly following the principles, values, ethics and objectives of microfinance
• Making monitoring and supervision regular and effective
• Streamlining internal control system and making it more efficient
• Having zero tolerance policy towards fraud
• Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer setting an example and being a role model in his/her organization

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