The panel set up to investigate
Mounir Gwarzo, suspended director general of Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), has recommended his dismissal on grounds that he awarded contracts worth
N33 million to his company.
The administrative panel of
inquiry into allegations of violations of public service rules, financial
regulations and other extant rules and regulations, which was set up by the
ministry of finance, also said Gwarzo admitted to the allegations.
The panel had been directed to
investigate claims that Gwarzo was a director in Medusa Limited and Outbound
Investment Limited while still serving as SEC DG and also used his influence to
award contracts to those companies.
According to the panel’s report,
he was a majority shareholder in Medusa Limited with a shareholding of N1.2
million.
“His purported letter of
resignation dates 19th December 2012 was not part of CAC’s records as at the
date of the inquiry.
“It was equally discovered from
the account opening mandate obtained from GTBank that Gwarzo was at the date of
the inquiry signatory to account No 322324264/1/110 maintained by the company
with the bank.”
He was also reported to have
signed letters as the company director to the bank requesting a change of account
number and a credit card for the company.
Both letters were dated July 24,
2015, and August 16, 2016, respectively.
“When Gwarzo was confronted with
the above letters, he admitted to having authored and signed them but claimed
that it was a regrettable action” the report stated.
Outbound Investments Limited,
which benefitted from SEC contacts worth N33,736,596, Gwarzo claimed the
company belongs to his wife’s family and stated that he was only representing
his wife on the board.
Based on the findings, the panel
said Gwarzo had breached PSR 030424 and PSR 030402 which prohibits public
officers from holding shares in both public and private companies operating in
Nigeria or abroad except that they must not be directors in public companies
and may only be directors in public companies if nominated by the government.
The panel also recommended that
he be referred to the ICPC for further investigation of the allegation of using
his position as DG to influence the award of contracts.
The ‘role’ of Adeosun, Oando
In November 2017, Kemi Adeosun,
the former minister of finance, had ordered Gwarzo’s suspension saying he
received a severance package upon assuming office as SEC DG.
Gwarzo was an executive
commissioner in SEC before becoming DG.
In response, Gwarzo had claimed
that he was because he protested Adeosun’s alleged directive to halt a forensic
audit being carried out on Oando at the time.
Gwarzo had directed a forensic
audit of Oando over allegations of irregularities, notably the increased
trading in the company’s shares before its declaration of a N183 billion loss —
said to be the biggest in Nigeria’s corporate history.
The office of the minister has
denied the allegation, maintaining that Gwarzo was suspended following
allegations that he was carting away documents to undermine a petition against
him.
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