DG, Lawmakers Trade Words Over N850,000 Bill

Tempers flared on Wednesday during the public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market in Abuja. The Committee headed by Hon. Herman  Hembe drilled the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh on various issues that undoubtedly caused the capital market boss discomfort.

Most startling were the allegations that the DG had spent as much as N 30 million on hotel bills in eight months following her securing the plum job, including a one-day expense of N 850,000 for food. All paid for with tax payers money.

The lawmakers also queried her unilateral appointment of two Access Bank staff as consultants to her office. The Access Bank employees, Charles Ugheli and Titi Olubiyi were hired in 2010 against the advice of SEC Legal and Human Resources Department.

Hembe expressed his displeasure on the development, stating, “Worse still, these employees are still workers of Access Bank. They are paid salaries by Access Bank, but work for SEC.

“This smacks of plenty fraud and the regulation by SEC is impaired by bias and incompetence.”

Oteh claimed the SEC did not have the capacity to use its own employees for the positions assigned to the Access Bank staff.

She explained, “”Ugheli is on secondment from Access Bank as projector adviser; his job has nothing to do with our work as regulators.”

The House Committee has queried Oteh’s failure to see the fallacy in her actions in relationship to her leadership of SEC.

Hembe said, “We will look into your competence as DG of SEC. You will bring all your certificates that qualified you for this job tomorrow and the letter of request to Access Bank for these employees and their schedule of duty.”