SEC says it spent over N6 billion on staff salaries with other overhead costs totalling about N8 billion in 2021 – an expenditure which senators described as outrageous.
The Senate has queried the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for spending about 90 per cent of its revenue on salaries and emoluments of staff of the Commission.
The SEC had disclosed that it spent over N6 billion on staff salaries with other overhead costs totalling about N8 billion in 2021 – an expenditure which the lawmakers described as outrageous.
Members of the Senate Committee on Committee on Capital Market frowned at this expenditure on Wednesday when the officials of the agency appeared before them for the 2022 budget defence.
The panel said it was wrong for SEC to have expended close to 90 per cent of revenues made in the 2021 fiscal year on staff salaries and emoluments.
Prior to the query, the SEC Director-General, Yuguda Lamido, had presented the agency’s budget performance for 2021 and projections for 2022.
He said N11.5 billion was projected as revenue for 2021, of which N2.7 billion was realised as at June with the hope of making more before the year runs out.
“Total recurrent expenditure for 2021 was budgeted at N13.53 billion but the actual expenditure was N4.063 by the end of June.
“Our budgeted deficit was N5.173 billion but the actual deficit as at end of September was N2.834 due to funding of it from our reserve.
“Though revenue performance is still weak but series of innovations like newly introduced charges for secondary Investors , will boost it up from 2022 fiscal year and beyond,” he explained.
But the Chairman of the panel, Ibikunle Amosun, already expressed dissatisfaction.
“Your emolument was almost N6 billion out of the N9 billion and other expenses, so clearly you are spending almost all of the revenue that comes to you on staff emolument and other related things.
“You should give us the number of staff that you have in the commission such that we need to look at what is happening. If you generate about N9 billion and almost N8 billion is purely for servicing the staff.
“You are having a huge deficit of almost N4 billion. When you continuously make this deficit, year in, year out, then something is wrong”, he said.
Mr Yuguda, however, assured the panel of plans by the Commission to reduce expenditure as well as increase revenue.
He said to give room for more financial inflow, SEC plans to retire about 152 top management staff “with fat salaries in paving way for recruitment of fresh workers – less financial burdensome on the commission.”
source: premium times
