BIRD FLU SURFANCES AGAIN IN THE CAPITAL Kathmandu, 2 Jan.: Bird re-surfaced in the capital one day after official declaration there were no traces of the viruses in the capital’s Ramkot and Sitapaila. Culling of birds at a farm with 3,000 chicks and other measures begin Wednesday to contain the virus on a cold winter day. Nnnn CAPITAL’S MORNING TEMPERATURE WEDNESDAY 4 DEGRES CELCIUS Kathmandu, 2 Jan.: Wednesday morning’s temperature in the capital was 4 degrees Celsius—warmer than previous days. Mercury is expected to rise to 22 degrees in the afternoon. Nnnn ARMY PLAYS POLICE IN FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kathmandu, 2 Jan.: Nepal Police plays Tribhuvan Army Club in the martyrs memorial club A Division football league championship Wednesday. NRT meets Himalayan Sherpa in another match at Dashrath Rangashala. Nnnn NO PROGRESS o IN MAOIST PROPERTY PROBES Kathmandu, 2 Jan.: Even after several deadline extensions, members of the two probe commissions constituted by the ruling UCPN(Maoist) to investigate the sources of property amassed by party leaders and commanders of the then People´s Liberation Army (PLA) have no clue when they will come up with their final reports, Republica reports.. Amid widespread criticism over the lavish lifestyle of some of the party´s leaders, that according to close aides was distinctly at odds their know sources of income, the ruling party had formed two separate commissions during its seventh plenum held last July at Bhrikuti Mandap. Both commissions were asked to submit their reports within a month. The first commission led by party Secretary Posta Bahadur Bogati, who is said to be close to Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, was assigned to look into the huge financial irregularities that allegedly took place at the seven PLA cantonments that housed almost 20,000 PLA combatants for almost four years. Lokendra Bista Magar and Nabaraj Subedi are the other two members of the commission. Similarly, the same plenum had formed another three-member commission led by Amik Sherchan, another close aide to Chairman Dahal, and it was asked to investigate the sources of the huge properties owned by party leaders. Hita Raj Pande and Dor Prasad Upadhyay are its other members. However, even after five months since their formation, the two commissions appear nowhere near submitting their final reports. Instead, according to party insiders, deepening factional differences and mistrust between the Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai camps have made both the commissions almost defunct. When Republica inquired with Hita Raj Pande about the current status of the commission, he had a blunt one-liner response. "I don´t know. Ask comrade Diwakar [Post Bahadur Bogati] who is coordinator of the commission," he said. A source on the commission said that all that the Bogati-led commission did was question some former PLA deputy-commanders. However, Nabaraj Subedi, a member of the commission led by Sherchan and an aide to Prime Minister Bhattarai, said the commission has made notable progress, a repeated claim that even many who are close to Sherchan disown. "We are currently writing the report and making all-out effort to submit the report with weeks," said Subedi. According to a source, the commission had received a barrage of complaints against Chairman Dahal and other senior leaders of the party for their “poor handling” of party funds. Earlier, commission chief Sherchan had informed that a total of 65 complaints had been filed at the commission against various leaders. After the formation of the two commissions, six of the seven former PLA division commanders had resigned en masse from their party posts, alleging that Chairman Dahal was hatching a conspiracy to make a few division commanders scapegoats for huge financial irregularities perpetrated by PLA commanders close to him. The ex-commanders also had demanded a thorough investigation against the former PLA supreme commander and other top level commanders, over embezzlements running into billions of rupees. According to the former PLA commanders, they were once questioned as part of the investigations but never questioned again after the dissolution of the PLA. Earlier, the commission members had said that they would keep the names of petitioners and the accused secret. The main report of the investigations will be submitted to the party and only a summary is to be made public. Nnnn FINANCE COS. IN TROUBLE Kathamandu, 2 Jan : At least nine finance companies have exhausted their reserves, where profits made over the years are parked, in a sign they may eventually land up in trouble if corrective measures are not taken immediately. This has directly hit their net worth and core capital - two indicators that display financial strength of an Institution, Rupak D. Sharma writes.. Arun Finance, CMB Finance, Gorkha Finance, Hama Merchant and Finance, Imperial Finance, Lalitpur Finance, Nepal Finance Limited (Nefinsco), Patan Finance and Prudential Finance recorded a negative reserve and surplus - which comprises shareholder equity in the form of retained earnings - in the first quarter of the current fiscal year as they suffered heavy losses due to accumulation of bad debts, unaudited first quarter balance sheets of these finance companies show. Of these, Lalitpur Finance and Nefinsco were earlier warned of prompt corrective action by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the banking sector regulator, while CMB Finance has merged with two other finance companies to turn into Synergy Finance. “Companies post negative reserve and surplus after suffering heavy losses. But if the losses were recorded due to problems, other than governance, these companies have chances of bouncing back,” Parshuram Kshettri, former CEO of Bank of Asia Nepal, told Republica. However, there is a caveat. “Since problems in many domestic financial institutions usually crop up because of bad governance, possibilities of such companies plunging deeper in hole cannot be ruled out,” Kshettri said. The unaudited balance sheets show that six of the nine companies - Arun, Imperial, Lalitpur, Nefinsco, Patan and Prudential - posted net losses in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The rest suffered heavy losses in the past which corroded their reserves. If these institutions fail to boost their performance, they may gradually fail to meet regulatory requirement of 5.5 percent core capital ratio - a comparison between core capital and total risk weighted assets - which may prompt NRB to take action. A quick scan of the balance sheets of nine finance companies shows that the situation is most precarious at Prudential Finance. This is because the size of negative reserve at the company has been growing for the last one year from Rs 8.20 million in the first quarter last fiscal year to Rs 64.13 million in the fourth quarter of the year and Rs 178.12 million in the first quarter this fiscal year. This is the same with Arun Finance, whose size of negative reserve grew from Rs 111.79 million in the first quarter last fiscal year to Rs 118.32 million in the first quarter this fiscal year. The situation is also worrying at Gorkha Finance, Patan Finance and Imperial Finance, which maintained a positive reserve and surplus until a year ago. These companies now have a negative reserve of Rs 43.49 million, Rs 36.94 million and Rs 1.36 million, respectively. The only company which has made some improvement is Hama Merchant, which reduced negative reserve from Rs 48.95 million in the first quarter of last fiscal year to Rs 30.31 million in the fourth quarter of same fiscal year and further down to Rs 23.77 million in the first quarter this fiscal year. This is because the company that posted a net loss of Rs 23.61 million in the first quarter last fiscal year started posting profit since then. Yet the company´s non-performing loans stand at an alarming 38.49 percent. Since generation of profit is key to maintaining a positive reserve and surplus, these companies can revive only if they boost their performance by recouping the bad debts, Kshettri said. Nnnn