RBS recovers Rs 10m from over 200 staff

KATHMANDU, JUN 09 -

Rastriya Beema Sansthan (RBS) has recovered Rs 10.08 million in prize money distributed in 2011-12 and 2012-13 from more than 200 employees, including those who have retired.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has directed the RBS management to recover

more than Rs 110 million in “illegal” prize money distributed over the last two decades.

RBS Administrator Ram Bahadur Khadka said the RBS recovered the allowances distributed in 2011-12 and 2012-13 without a board decision or the government’s approval. The perks were offered based on the decision of the administrator in consultation with employees’ unions.

Although the CIAA had directed in 2008 to recover Rs 80.35 million until that year, RBS continued to distribute the allowance for the following six years. The anti-graft body has issued the directive twice after the first one — in September 2013 and May 2014.

Khadka said Rs 58,000 each from officer-level employees and Rs 48,000 each from assistant-level staff was recovered. The stated-owned enterprise didn’t provide the allowance for this fiscal year.

RBS has requested the Finance Ministry to settle the remaining prize money-related liabilities of its employees through a Cabinet decision, as per the CIAA direction. “The CIAA directed us either to recover the amount or settle the issue through a cabinet decision,” he said.

A Finance Ministry senior official said the ministry has received such a request from the RBS.  “We are holding discussions on the proposal,” said the official.

RBS employee union leaders said they were disheartened by the whole episode, which smeared their image and also cut down their benefits. “We paid back the prize money were received in the last two years and we are not receiving the amount from this fiscal,” said a leader. “The chapter has closed now, but it has demoralised us.”

Although the prize allowance should have been given to the best performing employees, the distribution of allowance to all the employees had risen the eyebrows of the anti-graft body.

The employees unions, however, have been claiming they received the allowance as per the Cabinet decision during the late Manamohan Adhikari-led government in 1994.

“As the RBS Act has also allowed its board to take decisions on employee benefits, distribution of the allowance through a board decision over the two decades was legal,” said the leader.

Source: The Kathmandu Post