Probe panel okays Gwarzo’s dismissal from public service

.Directs suspended SEC DG to refund N104m

…Claims Finance Minister lacks power to suspend him

The Administrative Panel of Inquiry has recommended the dismissal of the suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, from the Public Service of the Federal Government.

The report and recommendations of the API headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, were sighted by one of our correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday.
In the report, which has been submitted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the panel also directed Gwarzo to refund N104,851,154.94 being the severance package he approved and received.

The panel also recommended that Gwarzo should be referred to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC) for further investigation over the allegation of using his position to influence the award of contracts to Outbound Investments Limited.

According to the report, Gwarzo’s position as the director-general of SEC as well as a director in two private firms (Medusa Investment Limited and Outbound Investments Limited) was in breach of Public Service Rule 030424, 030402 and Section 6 of the Investment and Securities Act, ISA 2007.

The panel further recommended that: ” Mr. Mounir Gwarzo should be referred to the ICPC for further investigation of the allegation of using his position as Director-General to influence the award of contracts to Outbound Investments Limited in view of the provisions of Sections 57 (12) (b) and 58 (5) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007;

“Gwarzo should be dismissed from the Public Service of the Federal Government, in line with PSR 030402 (in relation to the allegation on Golden Handshake), having breached paragraphs 313 and 316(4) of the Financial Regulations (Government Notice No. 219 of 27th October, 2009) (engaging in extra budgetary expenditure without appropriate approval);

“He should be discharged from service on the allegations of award of contracts to Medusa Investments Limited; award of contracts to other companies as mentioned in paragraph 5.1.1 and to which no relationship with Mr. Mounir H. Gwarzo was sufficiently established.”

But the panel recommended that the cases of two management officers of the Commission – Mrs. Anastasia Omozele Braimoh and Mr. Abdulsalam Naif H., be referred to SEC for appropriate disciplinary action in line with the provisions of the Staff Manual of SEC.

The panel advised the Federal Government to re-orientate public servants to the very fact that the Public Service Rules and Financial Regulations are ground norms of every Government Service Contract, be it at the Federal, State or Local Government levels.

“Accordingly, all Government Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies should be made to understand that the PSR and FR are superior to whatever specific legislations and domestic arrangements that guide their operations, except when such issues were not covered by any provision of the PSR,” the report stated.

In a related development, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on Tuesday, declared that the Federal Government was not considering reverting the suspension of Munir Gwarzo as the director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insisting that the suspended chief executive is unfit to hold such a sensitive position.

Adeosun disclosed this when she testified before the House Committee on Capital Market and other Institutions investigating the suspension of the SEC director-general and two other staff for alleged acts of misconduct.

She confirmed to the committee of having received the report of the administrative panel of inquiry into the series of allegations leveled against Gwarzo, adding that she would forward her recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

Speaking at the one-day investigative public hearing held by the House committee, the minister maintained that due process was followed before Gwarzo was suspended.

Read Also: Gwarzo suspension long over due, says Labour Union

According to her, upon the receipt of documented evidence of the allegations against the suspended director-general, he was given fair hearing but that his response to queries issued to him contradicted evidence in possession of the administrative panel.

The minister added that in spite of denials by Gwarzo that he had no interest in any private company, the panel discovered that he remained a director and shareholder in two private companies, Medusa and Outbond.

Dismissing insinuations by Gwarzo that his suspension was engineered by the minister because the SEC had technically suspended the shares of Oando Nigeria Plc, she said that Oando had petitioned the ministry declaring the suspended director general of being unfit to occupy his position.

The minister said, “Gwarzo was given fair hearing before suspension. I think the decision to suspend him was the right one and was done to restore confidence in the capital market.

“On his allegation of my attachment to Oando in any way, l want to inform this committee that l don’t nor any more of my family members owe any shares in Oando and l assure you the forensic audit ordered by SEC is ongoing contrary to claims by Gwarzo.”

The minister’s position was supported by the Director, Legal Services in Federal Ministry of Finance, Christopher Gabriel, who stated that Gwarzo’s suspension complied with public service rules.

He said that Gwarzo’s interests in the two private firms contravened the Code of Conduct for Public Officers set out in the 5th Schedule of the Constitution, Section 311 of the Penal Code and Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act.

Gwarzo had earlier in his testimony, accused Adeosun of interfering in the internal administration of the SEC, especially as it concerns the punitive action against Oando taken by the regulatory commission under his watch.

He also declared that the minister lacked the powers to suspend him from office, arguing that based on the law establishing the commission, “only the president has powers to suspend me based on the recommendations of the minister and subject to the approval of the Senate”.