The acting director general of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Mournir Gwarzo has said the National Assembly will reverse its decision on exclusion of SEC from the national budget.
In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP over the weekend, Gwarzo who, “commended the National Assembly so far on this development,” said both the Senate and the House Representatives have invited the commission over and they had a fruitful deliberations, “which will lead to a co-relation between SEC and the house.”
“There is a very good relationship between us and the national assembly. They have looked at our budget. The impasse has been resolved and we have an excellent relationship now. We hope …our budget will be approved.”
The zero allocation to SEC by the National Assembly has impacted negatively on the effectiveness of SEC’s regulatory supervision of the capital market.
Following a face-off that ensued between the lawmakers and the former director-general of the commission, Ms Arunma Oteh, in 2013 when the House Committee on the Capital Market investigated SEC, the House of Representatives had refused to approve any budgetary allocation to the commission since then.
Oteh had accused the committee of being unnecessarily harsh on her because she refused to release money for the conduct of the probe and bribe for some of the members.
The committee subsequently found her guilty of serious infractions and recommended her for sack, a position that was endorsed by the whole House, which passed the recommendation to the executive.
The refusal of President Goodluck Jonathan to fire Oteh, also strengthened the lawmakers’ resolve not to approve SEC’s allocation in the budget.
Since the beginning of the year, the new management under Gwarzo said it has recorded appreciable progress in some of the areas that are critical for market growth and development, by coming out with new rules that would make the nation’s capital market more attractive.
Capital market operators have said, these are rules that must be encouraged commended.
Source : Leadership