Most of cooperative organizations in Odisha have been refusing over the last several years to get their accounts and performance audited. This has raised doubts about their transparency and honesty.
There is widespread belief that cooperative institutions in the state are being run on Rafferty’s rules. It is against this backdrop that the Patnaik govt has chosen to alter the Odisha cooperative societies’ rules to compel cooperatives to get themselves properly audited.
Earlier cooperatives were supposed to get their accounts audited by the govt auditors alone but given a serious shortage of them they had an excuse to evade audit. However, the new rules have allowed private professional auditing firms to examine their accounts in a bid to rob cooperatives of a reason to skirt investigation.
Sources say countless fly by night firms have been masquerading as cooperatives in Odisha and engaging in serious illegal business operations, but the amended cooperative society’s rules would effectively put paid to such activities.