Another drama ensued on Thursday at the House of Representative Committee on Capital Market and other Financial Institution’s public hearing on capital market as the Director General (DG) of Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Oteh Arunma accuses the Chairman of the House of Rep Committee on Capital Market, Herman Hembe of demanding bribe from her.
Ms Arunma said that the Committee Chairman had demanded a bribe of N39 million from SEC for the hearing.
She further accused Mr Hembe of demanding N5million from the commission to enable him travel to the Dominican Republic to attend an Emerging market conference without embarking on the journey.
The DG made these accusations in response to the claims by the Committee that she has mismanaged the affairs of the commission.
The Chairman of the House of Rep Committee on Capital Market had questioned the Legal Commissioner and the Director of Finance on the rational of buying three Toyota Hilux vehicles for N32 million without following the procurement act of passing the resolution to buy the vehicles through the proper tenders’ board.
The Executive Commissioner Legal and Enforcement, Charles Udora confirmed that a memo to buy the vehicle was raised but that he refused to sign it.
He said he did not sign the tender bid to buy the vehicle because he did not attend the tenders’ board meeting where the purchase of the vehicle was resolved, “and as the most senior lawyer in the commission, I cannot sign the memo.”
The commission’s Finance Director said though he did not attend the tenders’ board meeting, he signed the memo assuming that the meeting held as a ‘virtual meeting’.
The committee resolved that the tender board meeting never held and that the memo was passed around for people to sign.
Mr Hembe said though the public procurement acts categorically states that the Secretary of the tenders’ board must be the director of the procurement department or someone from the department nominated by the director, in SEC the Secretary is a staff from the tenders’ board secretariat.
SEC paid N62 million as rent for DG
The committee asked the management of the commission to explain a memo that was issued by the Technical adviser to the DG, Franca Chukwuogu to the Head of Administration.
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| Oteh Arunma |
Another Memo from the Head of Administration, Bello Ibrahim showed that the rent for the five bedroom apartment at Maitama district of Abuja cost the commission over N62 million.
The Committee asked the management of the commission to explain why it paid the rent of the DG despite the enactment of the monetisation policy by the Federal government.
Furthermore, the committee questioned the rational of the commission for paying the bill of the DG who on appointment stayed at the Hilton Hotel for eight months instead of the 28 days recommended by civil service rule.
The committee also accused the management of SEC of abandoning its own training institute – The Nigeria Capital Market Institute (NCMI) while dishing out training contracts to private consulting firms.
Oteh Arunma stated, “I have raised issues regarding the credibility of the chairman, but that has not been addressed.
“I will like to say to the Nigerian people that I do not think that I am given a fair hearing.”
She claimed to have turned down both requests because she felt that they were not appropriate.
The SEC DG said, “I was told upon my appointment that whenever you try to fight corruption, corruption will fight you back.
“What I did not know was that this would come from the House committee.”
The committee had on Wednesday, questioned the capacity of SEC to manage the market in view of evidence that the agency itself conducted some of its internal operations in breach of public service regulations.
The committee discovered that Oteh had spent N30m on hotel accommodation in eight months, following her appointment in January 2010.
In one day, she reportedly spent N850, 000 on food, while on another day, she spent N85,000.
Responding to the allegations of mismanagement, the SEC boss said that the committee was not giving her a fair hearing.
‘Not even in Idi Amin time did we have such a kangaroo court,’ she said.
It took the intervention of the Chief Whip of the House of Representative, Mukthar Mohammed, who was present at the hearing, to calm the exchange of words between the committee’s Chairman and the SEC boss.
Mr Hembe adjourned further hearing on the matter to next Tuesday. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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good I may not doubt the accusation of the DG against the cttee chairman, but she should understand that corruption begets corruption. The chairman may have demanded that knowing that she has corruptly enriched herself and all these things have have been exposed because she is very greedy and refused to share her loot not because she fought corruption. I know she was always travelling out while cases of Nigerians who were defrauded by stock brokers like DAVANDY were pending on her table and up till now SEC has not been able to enforce them paying Nigerians their money. Aruma Oteh is not capable of heading SEC
ReplyDeleteMere looking at her (Ms Oteh), you will see the signs of rot and extravagance in her. Why a "Miss"?
ReplyDeleteWhat is she even eating in a day for such amount, God will judge all of you out there.
ReplyDeleteThis is a case of Chop alone dietogetheer
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that goodluck jonathan is playing with the futre of this country.
I think jonathan is not prepared for the position as it were.
just look at the general situation in the country. No sign of growth (or you called it development). Until pdp leave the govt. there will be no development take it or leave it
thief no fit catch thief. Na settlement go finish am.
ReplyDeleteNigerians take it easy on President Jonathan. Take it easy on the SEC Chief and all other FEMALE CEOs, MINISTERS etc. When the men enriched themselves nobody said a word.
ReplyDeletethat woman is corrupt.lets even accept that the chairman requested for bribe from her in march 2012. so is it this bribe that collasp the NSE market in 2009 or pay for her extra ordinary spending on different men per nite? that woman is a haw, she exchange men every night without paying well, one of them said so.annonymous
ReplyDelete