Kathmandu, September 28:

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) today recommended the government to recover over a million rupees from administrators of the erstwhile royal regime.

Three zonal administrators misused the state coffers during the direct rule of the king, the anti-corruption agency said, asking the government to recover funds from them.

Based on the Rayamajhi Commission report, the CIAA recommended the government to get back Rs 5 lakh each from the then Bagmati Zonal Administrator Shekhar Gurung and Narayani Zonal Administrator Prajapati Koirala, and Rs 1 lakh from Seti Zonal Administrator Karna Bahadur Dhimal.

“Since they have been convicted of misusing the state treasury, they should pay back the amount as per the Anti-Corruption Act 1991,” the CIAA said in a press release.

The CIAA has been investigating the misuse of state coffers by officials of the royal regime for 18 months. “The three officials could not specify the purpose for which money was spent.

They only told the Rayamajhi Commission that they spent the sum for security reasons,” CIAA

commissioner Beda Prasad Sikawoti told this daily, adding that their claims were unjustified.

The anti-corruption body, however, issued clean chit to other regional administrators — Jagadish Khadka, Rabindra Chakravarti, Chhatra Bikram Shah, Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav, Rana Bahadur Chand and Ram Kumar Subba. Janak Jangali, Kumar Bahadur Karki, Ramji Bista, Ramkrishna Pant, Lalit Bahadur Thapa, Min Bahadur Pal, Uttam Kumar Tamata and Mahendra Man Byathit also got the CIAA clean chit.

“They were given clean chit because they disclosed the specific purpose for which they drew funds from the state coffers,” Siwakoti added.