From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Ex-Senate President, Dr Adolphus Wabara, has flayed President Bola Tinubu’s recent directive on the abolition of Treasury Single Account (TSA), and introduction of Sub-Recurrent Account.
The Federal Ministry of Finance had on December 28, 2023, directed that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), fully funded by the Federal Government, should remit 100 per cent of their revenues into a Sub-Recurrent Account, a sub-component of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), where the Federal Government will receive and consolidate its revenue earnings.
According to the new policy, agencies not funded by the Federal Government are expected to remit 50 per cent of their generated revenues.
The directive effectively closes TSA conceived by former President Goodluck Jonathan but operated under the immediate-past administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking on the Federal Government’s new directive, Wabara, who is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), disagreed with the Federal Government, saying the new policy, though aimed at preventing corruption, would rather encourage financial malpractices and further syphoning of public funds.
He expressed disappointment over Tinubu’s approval of the new policy. The action, he said, had portrayed the current administration as unserious with the anti-graft war.
Wabara stated: “I obtained my Ph.D, defending my dissertation on Treasury Single Account. I am extremely disappointed with this decision of Tinubu. The only policy that attempted to showcase or portray the corrupt administration of Buhari as fighting corruption was his TSA policy.
“This Tinubu’s partial TSA policy is not a panacea for corruption. It gives the unfortunate impression that the Tinubu administration is not cut out to fight corruption, but unwittingly creating channels to siphon money. There are no two ways about it.
“As a scholar on this subject, I challenge the Tinubu administration to give Nigerians one good reason for this policy change other than to encourage corruption.”
Wabara, who called for a return to the TSA era, said the TSA would bring about financial transparency and prudent management of scarce resources, which would help Nigeria to exit early from its current economic malady.