Last Thursday workers at the beleaguered and obviously bankrupt Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) walked off the job over salary issues. This is an ominous sign that all is not well with the probe into the vast financial fraud that has occurred there.

Why is it that neither the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the receiver firm that was appointed by the FSC to investigate the institution, nor the Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke did not know that the skeletal SSL staff would not be paid their August salary? If they could not anticipate this to even correct it before it reached public attention, how much faith are we to repose in the wider and more gargantuan operation of ferreting out wrongdoing at SSL?

The minister of finance has stated categorically and forcefully that no effort will be spared to unearth skulduggery at the institution and to bring to book all those who are culpable. With the discovery of another US$10 million that has been defrauded, it seems clear that there are more people to be held responsible for the fraud at the firm. It is inconceivable that Jean-Ann Panton, who is the only person to have been arrested to date for alleged participation in fraud, could be the only person to have presided over this massive fraud. She would have to be a genius, and perhaps she is, to have done so single-handedly.

Thus, it should be clear, even to the least discerning, that there are others involved. Insofar as this is so, they must be made to feel the heat of the sunlight of public scrutiny and outrage and be punished to the greatest extent of the law.

We may applaud the minister’s chutzpah in not sparing any resources to deal with the fraud, but this begs answers to certain concerns. It is clear that by resources he means taxpayers’ dollars being deployed to clean up this mess. We have been this route before under the notorious Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac) in which billions of taxpayers’ resources were expended to address the collapse of the financial sector with minimal, if any, gain to the public purse. So a question to be asked, perhaps rhetorically at this point, is where will we be at the end of the SSL investigation? The investigation has been going on for some time now without a clear indication that there is an end in sight. How much of the people’s resources will have to be expended in addressing this mess? I know that not even the minister has an answer to this question. In fact, no one does.

It would, therefore, behove the minister and the people he has employed to address it to be straightforward and transparent so that we understand what we are really dealing with. The Opposition spokesman on finance Dr Julian Robinson has asked some pertinent questions regarding the emoluments of those who have been employed and the amount of money that the Government has spent thus far. These are practical concerns which should be answered easily if the books are being properly kept. A quarterly if not monthly report can be made in the name of transparency. We can be told more than the present eclectic and sparse information that comes to us.

We deserve better, especially knowing the sordid path we have trod in the past with regard to these matters. What we do not want is for this to become a bottomless pit or a financial dark hole into which taxpayers’ resources are being poured to no end. I wonder how much money has been paid for legal services so far? What say you, Mr Minister?

Then there is the other matter of the migration of brokerage accounts to another brokerage house. As I understand it, approaches have been made to some, and one seems willing to take them on, subject to legal fine-tuning being done. As I said in a previous commentary on this matter, all paths seem to lead to the FSC, which has to sign off on this and allow the accounts to be migrated. My layman understanding of this matter tells me two things. First, the stocks that are held in individual or even corporate brokerage accounts do not belong to these firms. Furthermore, the stock certificates, with accounts, are held by the Jamaica Central Securities Depository Limited (JCSD).

Thus, secondly, it should not present a problem if individuals want to transfer their accounts once they have been established as being up to date with SSL, along with corroboration from the JCSD. Presently anyone can transfer their accounts to another brokerage house. It is a seamless exercise. Therefore, should not the FSC bear some legal responsibility for any injury suffered by SSL stockholders by the inordinate delay in lifting the hold on their accounts? Why are SSL stockholders being held to ransom here?

There must be a clear line of demarcation between these stock accounts and wealth management accounts, especially fixed income securities that were being managed by SSL and which seem to be the real subjects of the fraud at the institution. I say to the FSC, free up the individual accounts and let who so desire move their accounts to another brokerage house that will be willing to receive them. Waiting for a mass or lump sum migration of these accounts unnecessarily complicates things and may have serious legal implications for the FSC. This is why it might be proving difficult to have a brokerage house or two take them on.

One perceptive reader called attention to this. He asked two pertinent questions: “What statute or regulation authorises the Financial Services Commission or any other agency of Government to transfer the brokership of any investor’s account from SSL (as broker) to a transferee broker who may not be the investor’s choice? If the FSC’s intent is to corral all the SSL investors’ accounts for transfer to another broker, by what criteria will that transferee be selected?” He posits the view that it would be more prudent for SSL’s manager to advertise, inviting each SSL investor to choose a transferee broker. He believes that it is possible that investors, restrained from trading their shareholdings, could incur losses claimable against the FSC.

These are concerns to which the FSC and the Government by extension would be well advised to pay careful attention and seek the best legal advice available.

What seems clear to this layman is that people wanting to transfer their accounts is not tantamount to a course in astrophysics. But from what one can see, the FSC appears to be sleeping at the wheel.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; The Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.