SAN FRANCISCO, September 15, (THEWILL) – The Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Mr. Ahmed Idris says the Federal Government has by implementing the Treasury Single Account, TSA, been saving N11 billion every month which would have been paid as interest on overdraft, account maintenance cost and others imposed by deposit money bank.
The Treasury Single Account, TSA, is a unified structure of government bank accounts that gives a consolidated view of the cash assets of government.
Idris stated that resistance to the implementation of TSA based on limited understanding of the federal government’s Treasury Single Account, TSA, is affecting its full implementation.
He stated this on Thursday 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.
Represented by the Deputy Director/Coordinator, TSA and e-collection, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh, the AGF said, “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.
“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.
Idris stated that the TSA is among the reasons the university teachers, ASUU, gave for their on-going industrial action.
“ASUU 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.
The Accountant-General added that there is significant improvement in government liquidity position as all the funds are now flowing into the TSA.
