MARGAO: Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Saturday demanded a Vigilance enquiry into the functioning of the Goa State Co-operative Bank Ltd which is the lead bank for co-operative sector in Goa and demanded that Manohar Parrikar who had raised the issue when in Opposition should end the matter now that he is the chief minister.
Claiming that the onetime settlement scheme was a big scam, Reginaldo highlighted three other scams and demanded a thorough enquiry into the matter and regretted that even though Manohar had raised the matter when in the opposition, he preferred to turn a Nelson’s eye after becoming the chief minister.
Reginaldo said the white label ATM installation was one scam as the amounts paid to the party that installed the machines is way beyond the specified amounts by the Reserve Bank of India.
Besides, he said, the person running the ATMs are not maintaining them and the maintenance has to be done by the bank which is against the policy.
He said that the discrepancies in the official statements of the bank and the replies to questions asked in the Assembly clearly indicate that there is something very wrong with the deal.
He said the tie-up with Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company is another scam as the company is not paying the bank commission it ought to pay every time the bank asks its loan applicant to have an insurance policy with that company.
“The company is not paying the bank commission and yet the bank is asking customers to insure with Kotak Mahindra; this is very suspicious and scandalous,” Reginaldo said.
The third scam according to him was the software prepared for the bank.
which, he said, is defective as it does not show the non-performing assets of the bank and hence does not give the correct status of the bank finances.
“In view of these anomalies, I demand that a thorough investigation be conducted in the status and functioning of this apex co-operative bank in Goa,” he said pointing out that all co-operative societies are linked with the bank and would suffer due to the wrongdoings of the bank where the weaker sections of Goan society have invested.
