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From Uche Usim, Abuja
In a move to recover its monies trapped in various Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as commercial banks, the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has warned culprits to immediately remit funds into the Treasury Single Account (TSA); as an offenders’ list was being compiled for onward transmission to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other law enforcement agencies for prosecution. The only exemptions from this list are the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited who are not on the TSA platform.
Ahmed, who made the disclosure in Abuja at the inauguration of the reconstituted Treasury Single Account (TSA) implementation committee, noted that aggregate collection of N7 trillion was made from 22 million transactions between January and November, 2021, while N19 trillion worth of payments were processed from 20 million transactions within the same period.
She said: “We are compiling the list of affected banks and MDAs for submission to anti-corruption agencies for enforcement. For the avoidance of doubt, except for selected accounts of NNPC and WAEC, no other MDA or fund of Federal Government is exempted from the TSA. If in doubt about the status of any account of Federal Government MDA in your custody, re-confirm from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation”, she said. TSA, she added, is the most popular both locally and internationally of government reforms.
“This recognition is attested to by the bilateral co-operation we have entered with other countries to share experience with them as they implement similar reforms in their countries. Our TSA experience has been a pleasant one.
The centralization of our banking arrangement has made it easier to determine government cash balances, reduce cost of borrowing, enhance liquidity, block leakages and improve internally generated revenue performance.
Using the TSA platform, we have since automated direct deduction of operating surplus of eligible agencies. At the last count, 16 agencies are covered and more will be added in the coming months.
