Yesterday, a House of Representatives Committee claimed that Arunma Oteh, Director General, Security and Exchange Commission spent a whooping N850,000 on food in a day and N30 million naira as accommodation bills for eight months.
All these fees she incurred at the expense of the nation when she was appointed the substantive DG of SEC in 2010.
Mrs. Oteh while responding to the queries of the House of Representative members branded the house sitting a Kangaroo court with sinister agenda.
While justifying why she spent N30 million naira in eight months, she said that at the time of her appointment she was given the opportunity to choose between a well furnished apartment or cash in lieu. She chose the former, but when authorities could not provide her with a befitting accommodation for someone who had just resigned her appointment as Vice President of African Development Bank, she was faced with no other option but to stay in an hotel.
Another allegation laid against her at the bad-tempered public hearing, was the arbitrary engagement of 2 staffers of Access Bank as SEC staff. The two staffs Messers Charles Ughele and Titi Olubiyi were engaged in 2010 as “Project Adviser,” “Communications Adviser” respectively to SEC.
According to the House Committee their engagement breached due process and was against the advice of both the legal and human resource departments of SEC.
The two officers being mentioned still retain their appointments with Access Bank and are being paid allowances equivalent to that of a director in the Federal Civil Service whenever they travelled out of Abuja.
Oteh while defending the engagement of the Access Bank staffs said, the country should be grateful for the pro bono work the two gentlemen are doing for the nation.
Oteh, went further by saying that the assignment of the two did not conflict with the core mandate of SEC as the regulator of the capital market.
She explained that Ugheli, for example, was a project adviser, whose duty was to assist the commission in expanding its office accommodation in Maiduguri and Port Harcourt.
When asked whether SEC did not have the capacity to hire or use its own employees for such duties, Oteh claimed that the commission did not have the capacity.
However, when asked whether this had been a practice in SEC, the human resource manager replied, “It is strange in my opinion, as we have never done that before.”
The committee observed that Oteh’s failure to see a link between her actions in relation to the Access Bank employees and the work of the commission questioned her competence as the director-general.
The disclosures came to the fore as the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market looked into the competence of SEC to adequately regulate the market in the light of the crises that had bedevilled the market lately.
Read below a press release titled Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Not Compromised by SEC to clarify issues
Lagos, Nigeria: March 14, 2012: Following the ongoing public hearing on the Capital Market by the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, there has been skewed reports online that the regulatory body, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compromised itself by hiring staffers of Access Bank Plc and by so doing has compromised its position as the capital market regulatory body.
It is important to put the story in the right perspectives before the misinformation assumes a life of its own.
The Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Arunmma Oteh used her used her personal goodwill to attract two people on secondment to the SEC from Access Bank.
They work in Brand Communications Support and Project Management / Premises Maintenance. – two areas in which SEC was and still is deficient and which are absolutely unrelated to the regulatory mandates / roles of the SEC Nigeria. There is therefore absolutely no conflict of interest involved in the matter.
They work pro bono, i.e. without earning any salaries at the SEC. They are not staff of the SEC and have no intention of taking employment at the SEC. The DG of the SEC should be commended for using her goodwill to attract them at no cost to the Commission.
The Hon. Herman Hembe, Chairman of the Public Hearing has shown needless and manifest hostility to the DG of SEC to the detriment of both the capital market and the national interest. He has twisted the facts to suit
premeditated interests which are known only to him.
While we whole heartedly welcome the public hearing, we should be mindful of utterances and acts that may erode the investor confidence which the regulatory body has been building through its numerous reforms.
Frank Uzuegbunam,
Senior Consultant
Caritas Communications,
Media Consultants to SEC.