This is the third time the anti-graft body has issued such a direction to RBS and second time in the last eight months.

The first CIAA directive had come in August 2008. RBS had distributed millions of rupees to its staffers illegally as “prize allowance” from 1996 to 2007.

“The RBS administrator has been asked to complete the asset recovery within the next six months and update the progress to the CIAA on a monthly basis,” said CIAA Spokesperson Shreedhar Sapkota.

CIAA summoned top RBS officials on Tuesday after they could not implement the directive. RBS Administrator Ram Bahadur Khadka said he would implement the directive as per the instruction of the Finance Ministry.

Khadka said the RBS management was not able to implement the previous CIAA directive because of an agreement with the Insurance Board (IB) that the RBS would take further steps as per report of an IB probe. The CIAA had directed the IB to probe irregularities in RBS.

Khadka, said the RBS management has stopped distributing the allowance since his appointment.  “It will be a challenging job to recover the amount,” he said. “Even retired employees and those who have deceased are liable to pay back the amount as per the CIIA directive.”

Employees’ unions at RBS, however, have been calming they received the allowance as per the decision of the Cabinet during the late Manamohan Adhikari-led government in 1994.