ABUJA – The Acting Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Mounir Gwarzo, has urged the staff of the organisation to support the fight against corruption in the capital market.
Gwarzo said this at the inauguration of the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU) of the SEC in Abuja.
The Acting Director-General, who was represented by a staff member, Miss Mary Uduk, said that the presence of ACTU within government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) was innovative and impacting on the country.
He said, “This decentralised approach will surely deepen a culture of transparency and compliance while helping our country to eventually overcome the menace of public corrupt practice.
“ Fighting corruption and institutionalising transparency is a goal that both the SEC and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) collectively share.
“ As apex regulator of the Nigerian Capital Market, we demand the highest levels of transparency from entities we regulate; we therefore hold ourselves to similar standards in our own operations.
“ I would like to urge all members of staff to give this unit the maximum level of cooperation at all times.
“ And we must see ourselves as critical parts of this important national objective to stamp-out corruption from our land.
Gwarzo also pledged to adequately equip the unit with the necessary resources to perform within the provisions of the ICPC Act 2000.
The ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta, said the ACTUs were ICPC’s special vehicles designed to fulfill its mandate in the MDAs of government.
“ Our mission is to ensure that MDAs are rid of corruption and to restore the values of integrity.
“ Since its inception in 2001, ACTUs have done quite well in sanitising the work environment and ensuring that acts of corruption and impunity are minimised in government business.
The chairman, who was represented by Mr Lawal Akeem, said the unions of both organisations would ensure that victory was achieved to eliminate corruption in the country.
He commended SEC for the critical role it played in ensuring sanity in the capital market and urged its members to work towards moving the commission forward.
He also charged members of the ACTU to be responsible in the exercise of their functions and avoid any oppressive acts, given the strategic role they play.
“ Your goal should be the achievement of total success in your assignment which in the end will contribute a great measure in making the organisation a better place,’’ Nta said.
Also, the Chairman of the SEC ACTU, Mrs Bridget Emakpor, said that corruption had become a way of life, threatening the present and future of Nigerian children.
She said, “ If not effectively checked, corruption will become endemic and soil the image of Nigerians within Africa and beyond.
“ It must then be the concern of every family, institution, ministry, department and agency.
“ We must persuade members of staff, the Nigerian capital market and the society to perceive the danger that corruption poses to our wellbeing and to enable us to take our rightful place in the nation.’’
Emakpor expressed gratitude to SEC on the inauguration of the ACTU and pledged the members’ commitment to duty.