1. Meeting
of CEOs of SIDCs with C.M.D., National Housing Bank :
As the apex body
of State Level Financial Institutions (SLFIs), COSIDICI has been examining
the prospect of diversifying the business portfolio of these Institutions
to enable them to compete with other financial intermediaries so as to
survive the onslaught of liberalisation and financial sector reforms. After
a great deal of deliberations COSIDICI suggested the following two proposals
for consideration by SLFIs :-
-
SIDCs may set
up Housing Finance Subsidiary to provide housing loans to individuals,
institutions and government employees in their respective states.
-
Undertake marketing
of Insurance products of Life and General Insurance Companies as Corporate
Agents.
At the initiative
of COSIDICI a meeting of Chief Executives of SIDCs with Shri P.P. Vora,
C.M.D., National Housing Bank was held on April 24, 2001 at New Delhi in
the offices of National Housing Bank to discuss the prospect of Housing
Finance business in states, viability of setting up housing finance subsidiary
and the support available from NHB. The details regarding the discussions
at the meeting are given in the article on "SIDCs to Diversify into Housing
Finance" in this Issue by Shri K.K. Mudgil, Secretary General, COSIDICI.
2. Training
:
In today's scenario
of liberalisation and economic reforms, it is imperative to impart need
based training to the officers of SLFIs on an ongoing basis to apprise
them of the latest financial techniques and improve upon their interpersonal
skills etc. COSIDICI has been making concerted efforts in this regard for
the past two years. One such programme on `Project Finance and Monitoring'
was organised in NIBSTC, New Delhi in May 1999. Efforts were also made
to have institutional arrangements with IDBI to provide training at their
Hyderabad Institute. However, the high cost of training at the Institute,
which our Members could ill afford, discouraged them to depute their officers
for it. Secretary General, COSIDICI has now held detailed discussions with
three more Institutes and has found the quality and infrastructrue facilities
available with College of Agricultural Banking, RBI, Pune to be good, the
faculty experienced and the cost reasonable. The principal of the College
has agreed to structure need based training programmes for the officers
of SLFIs. Details are expected to be finalised soon and will be given in
the next issue of the COSIDICI COURIER.
3. Appointment
of Statutory Auditors of SFCs :
The Amended SFCs
Act, 2000 vide the amended provision of Section 37 of the Act had empowered
the shareholders of the Corporation to appoint the statutory auditors out
of the panel of auditors approved by RBI on such terms and remuneration
as the RBI may fix. The matter had been taken up by COSIDICI with RBI and
the latter had immediately conveyed the names of audit firms to be appointed
by the SFCs as statutory auditors for the year 2000-01. As most of these
audit firms were from centres other than the place where the SFCs were
functioning, the corporations were reluctant to appoint them as their statutory
auditors due to the heavy expenditure expected to be incurred on their
travel and accommodation. It was also felt that frequent interaction would
also not be possible due to the distance in location. COSIDICI had taken
up the matter again with RBI and they had advised that as the information
relating to financial data of SFCs was not readily available the names
of audit firms were recommended to each Corporation out of the panel of
the Statutory central auditors on the basis of their seniority. The SFCs
were, however, not reconciled to the situation. Secretary General, COSIDICI
had, therefore, written to RBI again and stressed on the need to provide
a panel of auditors to SFCs - it being a mandatory provision of section
37(1) of the SFCs Act, as amended by SFCs (Amendment) Act, 2000. Results
are awaited.
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