More Trouble For Gwarzo: Panel Recommends His Sack From Service

BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – It is more trouble for the suspended Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Mounir Gwarzo as the Administrative Panel of Inquiry has recommended his immediate dismissal from the Public Service.

The embattled Gwarzo is also expected to refund to the government treasury about One Hundred and Four million, Eight Hundred and Fifty One Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty Four Naira and Ninety Four kobo (N104,851,154.94) being the severance package he approved for himself and collected from the Commission.

Insiders told Forefront that in a report submitted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the Panel similarly recommended that Mr Gwarzo should be referred to the anti-graft agencies, particularly the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) for further investigations bordering on allegations of using his office to manipulate contract awards to Outbound Investments Limited.

Interestingly, the Panel chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, noted that for Gwarzo to occupy the office of SEC’s Director General as well as a director in two private companies (Medusa Investment Limited and Outbound Investments Limited) ran contrary to public service rule 030424, public service rule 030402 and Section 6 of the Investment and Securities Act, ISA 2007.

However, Mr Gwarzo was let off the hook by the panel due to lack of evidence sufficiently linking him to allegations of awarding contracts to Medusa Investments Limited; and some other firms as the Commission’s boss

On the two management staff earlier suspended along with Gwarzo;  Mrs Anastasia Omozele Braimoh and Mr. Abdulsalam Naif, the Panel recommended that they be referred to the Commission’s management for appropriate disciplinary action as provided in their Staff Manual.

It is also the Panel’s view that the Federal Government must put machinery in motion to re-orientate public servants on existing Public Service Rules and Financial Regulations as the ground norms of every Government Service Contract at all the three tiers of government levels.

Furthermore, the panel maintained that “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.”