Claims of unprofessional work culture misplaced: Sebi

Bengaluru: The Securities & Exchange Board of India, on Wednesday, refuted allegations that its work culture had become toxic, calling them misplaced, and said that a letter sent by a group of employees to the Finance Ministry stemmed out ‘external influences’.

The capital market regulator’s statement came in the backdrop of media reports suggesting that employees of Sebi had written a letter to the government on August 6, raising concerns over unprofessional work culture. The letter, contents of which have been reviewed by DH, stated that the key result areas (KRAs or targets) were unrealistic and being constantly changed, and that employees were being called names and shouted at by the Sebi leadership.

The letter and Sebi’s response emerges at a time when Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch is already under spotlight regarding recent allegations of conflict of interest by short-seller Hindenburg Research.

"The claims of unprofessional work culture in the letter dated August 6, 2024, are misplaced," Sebi said in a statement.

The regulator suspects that junior officers have been receiving messages from outside parties encouraging them to "go to the media, the Ministry, or the Board," possibly for the outsiders' own agendas.

"Sebi apprehends that the junior officers have been receiving messages from external elements outside their group, effectively instigating them to 'go to media, go to the Ministry, go to Board', perhaps to serve their own purpose. In fact, the letter of August 6, 2024, was not sent by the Sebi employee associations to the Government (and a section of the media)," the statement noted.

It was an anonymous email that was sent, and officers and associations have themselves condemned it and communicated the same to HRD through emails, the regulator said.

In its response, Sebi said that some of the employees had misreported their yearly targets, and were shuttling files over a long period of time between departments to avoid taking decisions.

“It is unfortunate that some elements have attempted to diminish the significant capabilities of Sebi employees by instigating employees to believe that, as ‘employees of a Regulator’ they should not be required to have such high standards of performance and accountability,” it said.

Sebi said that appraisal marks of poorly performing officers were being adjusted by some to somehow make them eligible for promotion.

“It is our belief that Sebi’s junior officers, who were in large numbers, originally aggrieved in respect of HRA allowances, have been misguided, perhaps by external elements to believe that they are being “underpaid”, even at a CTC of Rs. 34 lakh per annum and that it would be in their interest to use issues of work culture to bargain for monetary benefits,” the regulator said.