Politicians Should never be appointed to Chair the SEC

 Saturday, 04 July 2015

I read the great article " The SEC Role needs to Change" and wanted to make a few comments
I fully endorse it and congratulate for highlighting this. The current Chairman is a man of integrity, but he certainly carries a lot of baggage with him. The market knows how he got ridiculed with the former president where he was asked to go over night. He is now a wounded animal waiting to strike.

The market knows how he has spent his energy in the last few months trying to fix those responsible for the beating he got from the Former President, instead of giving confidence to the market to grow he is going after people.. The SEC cannot be used to screw people, Mr. Chairman. With all that history he has, the market was surprised that he was appointed Chairman by someone knowledgeable like Hon Ranil Wickramasingha.

What is the experience he has on Capital markets? The market knows very clearly that the broker scheme is targeting three or four brokers who stood upto the Chairman in his previous run as Chairman. The new target is Lanka Rating Agency, certainly LRA needs to get its act together, the pressure the SEC is giving is good. Surely instead of helping the institution that has over 30 staff to overcome that by merging with another institution or getting some in to help them, making them bankrupt is not the role of the SEC.

The SEC must take responsibility for the plight of the 30+ staff or arrange for them to get jobs. The market talk also says the SEC is influenced by an international rating agency to ensure their monopoly is strengthened. How sad if this is true? The market knows the nexus between the DG and the Chairman and how they operate. The SEC is slowly becoming a political shop . The respected professionals on the commission should ensure fair play and justice with out allowing the political Chairman to go on a witch-hunt. The government should never appoint ex politicians or politically colured people to regulatory authorities in the future. How can there be justice with people like that? Because they are politically bias. Ex politicians should never be appointed to head the SEC!

Priyantha