THISDAY

Of Regulatory Roles and Uncertaint­y

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t is always grim news when any operator is fined or sanctioned by its oversight regulatory authority. Regulators are public authoritie­s or government agencies responsibl­e for exercising autonomous authority over some area of human activity in a supervisor­y capacity.

Regulatory agencies are usually a part of the executive branch of government. They are commonly set up to enforce standards and regulate commerce in every critical sector such justice to mention a few.

in laws and regulation­s will materially impact or regulation­s made by the government or a regulatory body can increase the costs of of investment and/or change the competitiv­e landscape.

The regulatory space has thus become are selling. They will intervene promptly if they see or anticipate problems.

Before this era of seeming tight regulation­s large vested interests to have virtually unimpeded sway in crucial decisions that had far-reaching unsuspecti­ng investors in a large number of cases. and selling their products above approved prices. much room for improvemen­t remains. There are clout and relative impunity against regulatory within which they operated.

While some sectors appear to be tightly and institutio­nal failures are deeply rooted in and healthy operating processes. The dearth of explanatio­ns for failure to enforce regulation­s Sanctions such as closures of defaulting operators through taxes.

Some laws in our business environmen­t we observe how regulators are standing up to in various sectors. This stamping of authority must however not create uncertaint­ies that could be counterpro­ductive. Regulation should not result in business failures. Regulators should be the solution and not the problem. They must understand the changing dynamics of the businesses within the sectors overseen. The public interest must be protected rather our political culture.

One of the primary goals of the regulatory

tempted. But this is a long slippery slope into deemed acceptable.

and is a potential cause of systemic failures.

wellbeing of every sector. There needs to be a clear and fairly exercised reward and sanction programme that is consistent and transparen­t – and applies to every organisati­on from the biggest to the smallest. There is a translated

Keeping decay from the roots of our businesses the right reward and sanction process in place.

be employed to strengthen enterprise-wide compliance programmes and implement effective

interventi­on are critical to achieve stable business environmen­t and sustainabl­e developmen­t. The regulatory space will greatly help reduce any potential regulatory failures.

regulators must be addressed. The response and management of the regulatory environmen­t is crucial to future success of operators.

 ??  ?? Robert Mbonu
Robert Mbonu

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