The government is likely to be able to recoup £1m at most from bonuses paid to the executives who were in charge of Thomas Cook when it failed.

MPs on the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee will question former directors of Thomas Cook on Tuesday, in the first session of an inquiry into one of the most high-profile failures in UK corporate history.

They are expected to ask directors whether they feel they should give back some of the multimillion pound pay packets they were awarded for running the company in its final years.

The company’s last three chief executives were paid £35m between them in the 12 years leading up to the tour operator’s collapse, while board members were handed £20m in bonuses alone during the past five years.

But the Guardian understands that any repayment is likely to be a small fraction of that, due in part to a two-year limit on the “clawback” powers written into the contract of directors, if they are deemed responsible for the firm’s financial downturn.

Peter Fankhauser was paid £8.4m during his tenure as chief executive at Thomas Cook, including £4.6m in bonuses, but the majority was paid in shares that he did not sell and are now worthless. Of the remainder, only one year’s cash bonus falls within the two-year clawback limit, meaning the maximum he could be forced to return is £558,000.

The same applies to former finance director Michael Healy, who could only be forced to give back £465,000, a combined total of just over £1m.

That is less than the £1.5m than the Civil Aviation Authority is understood to have collected from Thomas Cook for providing advisors in the year leading up to its failure.

The government’s Official Receiver managing Thomas Cook’s liquidation does have powers to reclaim sums paid before the clawback period but would have to prove serious misconduct.

That means the government is unlikely to be able to reclaim £561,000 in cash bonuses that Fankhauser received in the two years prior to the limit, while the same applies to Healy, who could keep £484,000 in cash.

The time limit also means there is little chance of the Official Receiver reclaiming money from the firm’s previous two bosses, Harriet Green and Manny Fontenla-Novoa, paid more than £27m between them.

Directors appearing on Tuesday are expected to express contrition for their role in the company’s demise. They are also expected to say that a financial rescue plan, dubbed “Project Avenue”, could have worked if the government had agreed to invest in the company on commercial terms.

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They will claim that the Department for Transport’s lack of support sealed the fate of the company.

Investment firm Triton Partners is in talks to buy Thomas Cook’s Nordic operations, Sky News reported, raising hopes that more jobs can be saved.

The tour operator’s one-time rival Hays Travel bought its 555 high street travel agents last week and said it wanted to employ 2,500 former staff.