RBS to audit accounts of last six fiscal years

KATHMANDU 11 Sep:

Trouble at government owned Rastriya Beema Sansthan will not subside any time soon as the insurance company and agitating unions have once again failed to come to an agreement.

The board meeting of the company held yesterday has decided to undertake the audit of the last six years as soon as possible without asking for the employee unions’ approval. The four employee unions active at the insurance company have been agitating since the last two months.

“Repeated talks have not succeeded in achieving any kind of negotiation of late. The company will be able to assess whether employees’ demand can be fulfilled or not only after conducting the audit of the last six fiscal years,” pointed out chairman of Rastriya Beema Sansthan Prem Singh Maharjan.

The four employee unions have been demanding additional benefits, allowances and increased pension and gratuity since the past few years. After the company’s management proposed splitting RBS’s life and non-life insurance businesses as separate entities, the unions have demanded share allotment of both the companies formed after the split, among others. The unions have also barred administrator Ram Bahadur Khadka from entering the office premises since the past three weeks.

The oldest insurance company of Nepal is still issuing policies of both life and non-life insurance which was forbidden by the regulator — Insurance Board — 21 years back. The Insurance Act 2049 states that no insurance company can undertake both life and non-life insurance businesses.

“There is a pressing need to separate the businesses — to keep life insurance operating under the existing RBS Act and let non-life insurance be handled by the Company Act. So we will pursue it as soon as the audit is completed,” said Maharjan.

The board has not taken negotiation with employee unions off the table but has decided to focus on more urgent needs right now, so that it can save the company’s day-to-day activities from deteriorating.

“We are also demanding splitting life and non-life businesses, getting the balance sheets audited, and getting them endorsed at the annual general meeting,” pointed out a representative of Nepal Rastriya Karmachari Sangathan — one of the employee unions at RBS.

“But our move is to ensure that while doing so, the management and board should also recognise the rights and interest of the employees,” the employee said.

Source: THT