It was late 2008 that the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed to Congress that some employees, including 17 senior officers collecting salaries ranging from $100,000 to $222,000 per year, were caught watching pornography on the job during the then-unfolding financial crisis. Until recently the story had not caught on in the media, but late last month it took off and is now drawing massive amounts of public criticism. In an article for HuntingtonNews.net, Rene A. Henry offers some advice to the SEC:
In order to avoid any appearance of hypocrisy, SEC Commissioner Mary Shapiro needs to bring her own agency into compliance and clean house before pursuing fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, or any organization for that matter.
It is a disgrace that senior level employees at a regulatory agency, earning salaries as much as $222,418, whose mission was to “protect investors and maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets” not only did not do their jobs, but misused federal resources. Every month new evidence is made public of malfeasance at the SEC. Time and again whistle blowers and others took solid evidence of illegal activities to the agency which did nothing.
The SEC, already battered regarding its potential contribution to the financial crisis, will now also have to focus some of it crisis management efforts on convincing the public that it can police internally as well as externally.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/