Failing to come up with any conclusion over whether the RBB officials should be distributed bonus, the SAC meeting held on Tuesday deferred the decision for next meeting as SAC members were sharply divided over the matter.[break]
While some lawmakers said the RBB should distribute bonus to its employees only after the bank recovers its accumulated loss and makes profit, other SAC members argued that the bank should distribute bonus to its staffers only when the institution makes profit.
“How can we instruct the bank to distribute bonus when it is crystal clear that the bank is yet to clear losses of billions of rupees,” said lawmaker Chitra Bahadur KC. However, another lawmaker Arjun Joshi was of the view that the bank should be allowed to distribute bonus to its employees only for the year it profits.
The SAC discussed the matter after representatives from three trade unions of the bank complained at the parliamentary committee that they were deprived of bonus they are entitled to as per the law. They accused the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) of preventing the bank management from distributing the bonus against the provision of the Bonus Act-2030 BS that guarantees their right to bonus. Top officials from the finance ministry, RBB and CIAA were summoned for the committee meeting on Tuesday.
The CIAA had last year written to the chief secretary and secretaries at the ministries of finance, labor, and commerce and supplies to not distribute bonus to the staffers of any public enterprise suffering losses. The CIAA in its instruction said that any institution, which is in loss, can offer bonus to its staffers only after it makes sufficient accumulated profits.
Officials from the finance ministry said they were not in the position to allow the bank management to distribute bonus as the institution is in a net loss of Rs 15.62 billion.
However, RBB officials claimed that the bank has made profit this year and that they shouldn´t be deprived of bonuses this year just because the bank incurred losses in the previous years. “The bank should distribute bonus to the staffers as per the Bonus Act-2030 BS. Employees will be frustrated if they are deprived of the incentives. This will eventually have an adverse impact on the bank´s overall performance,” the RBB said in its written reply to the parliamentary committee.
After taking stock of the arguments and counterarguments from the SAC members, the committee Chairman Ram Nath Dhakal decided to consult lawyers before taking any decision in the next round of meeting to this effect.
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