Gwarzo Awarded N33 Million SEC Contracts To Own Companies In Violation Of Public Service Rules, Report Reveals

More facts have emerged on how the suspended Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo, allegedly awarded contracts to a companies in which he is a director to the tune of N33 million while in office.

The contracts were awarded to two companies namely: Medusa Limited and Outbound Investment Limited where he (Gwarzo) serves as director simultaneously as Director General of SEC.

These and others were contained in the Report of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry into allegations of violations of public service Rules, Financial Regulations and other Extant Rules and Regulations set up by the Honourable Minster of Finance to investigate the propriety of the allegations and come up with recommendations.

Although, a federal high court had recently discharged and acquitted Gwarzo who had been standing trial over abuse of office and fraudulent practices while serving as Director General of SEC.

The Terms of Reference of the Panel include to investigate allegations against Gwarzo that he was a director in Medusa Limited and Outbound Investment Limited while still serving as SEC Director General and also used his influence to award contracts to those companies.

On the allegation of Gwarzo’s directorship in Medusa Limited while still serving as Director General, the report stated that through inquiries made and documents obtained by the panel at the Corporate Affairs Commission, Gwarzo was still a director of the company as well as a major shareholder with a shareholding of N1.2 million as at the time of the search

According to the report, “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.”

The panel was also furnished with a letter dated 24th July, 2015, addressed to the bank signed by Gwarzo as director of the company requesting for a change of account Officer on the basis of a resolution passed and signed by the directors of the company to that effect.

The report indicated that also discovered was a letter dated 16th August , 2016 signed by Gwarzo as a director of the company requesting for the issuance of a credit card in relation to the said account.

“When Gwarzo was confronted with the above letters, he admitted to have authored and signed them, but claimed that it was a regrettable action” the report stated.

On Outbound Investments Limited which benefitted in contracts awarded by SEC to the tune of N33,736,596, in which Gwarzo is a director and shareholder, he claimed the company belongs to his wife’s family and stated that he was only representing his wife on the Board.

Based on revelations, the panel opined that Gwarzo’s status as director in both Medusa Investment Limited and Outbound Investment Limited while serving as Director General of SEC has raised and established a fundamental issue of conflict of interest against him.

Specifically, the PSR 030424 expressly states that Public officers are not prohibited 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 government.

Further more, Section 6 of the Investment and Securities Act 2007 States as follows: “the Director General and the Full Time Commissioners shall devote their full time to the service of the Commission and while holding office, shall not hold any other office or employment except where appointed by virtue of their office in the Commission into the membership of the Board of any agency of the Government in Nigeria or any International Organisation to which the Commission is a member of in affiliate”.

Given his directorship in both companies, the panel opined that Gwarzo was in breach of PSR 030424 and PSR 030402 (divides loyalty, which is classified as an act of serious misconduct).

The panel also opined that being a shareholder of Outbound Investment Limited, Gwarzo used his position as Director General to influence the award of contracts to the company which amounts to conflict of interest.

Based on the gravity of the findings by the Panel, it was recommended that Gwarzo be dismissed from the Public Service of the Federal Government for holding the position of a Director in private companies while in service as the Director General of SEC in breach of PSR 030424 and Section 6 of the Investment and Securities Act 2007.

The panel also recommended that Gwarzo 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 Investment Limited in view of the Provisions of Sections 58 (12) (b) and 58 (5) of the Public Procurement Act 2007.