MARGAO: Allegations of corruption, accusations of misleading shareholders, heated exchanges and verbal intimidation dominated the Annual General Body Meeting of the Madgaum Co-operative Bank Ltd on Sunday.
Despite this, all 13 points on the agenda were discussed and approved.
After confirming the previous minutes, members raised questions regarding the budget expenditure of the previous year. The legal and professional charges had crossed its Rs 8 lakh budget to Rs 20.11 lakh.
Managing Director Kishore Amonkar said there were several cases filed during the year before the High Court and a case in the Supreme Court. Members sought to know as to why the entertainment expenses for the year 2017-18 had crossed the budgeted figure of Rs 1.5 lakh. The Board responded by stating that the actual expenditure of Rs 1.6 lakh included tea and refreshments during Board meetings and guest visits.
Another issue which was debated was restructuring the bank account books by writing off 9 NPAs worth Rs 7.6 crore and selling bank assets to increase the authorised capital. The MD explained that nearly Rs 4.8 crore had been granted as loan to a mining company while the rest was loaned to a Pharma company. The latter had kept an industrial shed as collateral which was valued by the bank at around Rs 3 crore. The MD informed that the bank found no takers for the shed.
Dr Aashish Kamat, a member pointed out that the value of the shed is not more than Rs 1 crore. Members expressed their scepticism whether the board will be able to ever recover the outstanding loan once the NPAs are written off.
The MD also suggested selling the office in Margao and 50% of the Panjim office as part of the revival plan. Members expressed their displeasure over the decision to sell the banks premises but the board explained that unless they are able to generate funds, the RBI will not allow them to give loans.
Another member Anand Desai said the revival plan report was not shown to the revival committee.
The MD informed that the consultant from Pune was hired to provide a revival plan, which has been submitted to the RBI.
Board member Atul Verlekar said since the RBI has not rejected the plan, he hopes that it will be accepted and they will be able to revive the bank.
There were confrontations between a few shareholders and Board members.
Arguments triggered and escalated into a ruckus just before the points of the agenda related to loan and NPA write offs were being discussed.
Some members pointed out that this was an attempt to pass the proposals for write-off without discussion.
