By John Omoaka
The Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, has said as at the last count, the Federal Government has been saving N11 billion every month through implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA).
He said the amount would have been paid as interest on overdraft, account maintenance cost and others imposed by deposit money bank but for the TSA implementation.
But he said resistance based on limited understanding of the federal government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) is affecting its full implementation.
He disclosed these last week at the Lunch Term Seminar on “Common Challenges in the Implementation of the TSA in the Nigerian Public Service” organised by the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) in Abuja.
Treasury Single Account (TSA) is a unified structure of government bank accounts that gives a consolidated view of government cash resources.
“People are resisting TSA. Any time people say no TSA; there may be two reasons for this. One may be personal interest while the other is that they don’t know what TSA is all about,” said the AGF, who was represented by the Deputy Director/Coordinator, TSA and e-collection, Sylva Okolieaboh.
“Since TSA started, no one has ever come to us to seek permission to make payment; neither are we taking your money. As far as I’m concern, nothing has changed except moving MDAs accounts from commercial banks to Central Bank,” he said.
According to him, TSA is among the reasons university teachers gave for their ongoing strike action.
“ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) is made of intellectuals whose job is not to oppose government policies but to conduct research on TSA and help to see how to improve the initiative,” he added.
Idris listed other challenges to TSA implementation to include non-enrolment of key arms of government, capacity deficit, lack of clarity in stakeholder roles as well as conflicting directives and signals.
He said the initiative covers all funds, budgetary or extra-budgetary, under the control of Federal Government entities irrespective of arm of government.
He added that there is significant improvement in government liquidity position as all the funds are now flowing into the TSA.
The Acting Director General of BPSR, Dasuki Arabi said the forum was to enlighten government officials on the TSA and their role in its implementation.
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