Suspended SEC DG, Gwarzo, clarifies N1.7bn payment to workers

The suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mounir Gwarzo, on Sunday clarified why the sum of N1.7bn was paid as severance package under a ‘Golden Handshake’ scheme to workers of the commission under his leadership.

He noted that contrary to claims in some quarters that he was involved in extra-budgetary spending in implementing the scheme, the amount was approved by the board of the commission at its meeting in 2015.

The report of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry, which was set up to probe Gwarzo, had stated that the payment of the N1.7bn to 44 members of staff of SEC as severance package was never provided for in the commission’s budget for 2015.

The payment, according to the API, is one of the contraventions of the financial regulation by the embattled SEC DG, which led to the recommendation for his dismissal from the public service.

But Gwarzo, in an electronic mail to PUNCH correspondent on Sunday, said that the commission in 2015, introduced a voluntary exit scheme for members of staff willing to quit the service of SEC, adding that the funding of the scheme was carried out in line with the statutorily laid down procedure for disbursing funds.

PUNCH, February 5, 2018

 

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