TSA Director Accuses MDAs of Operating Illegal Accounts

• TSA Director Accuses MDAs of Operating Illegal Accounts

The Director, Treasury Single Account, Sylva Abor, has said that some Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies are still operating illegal accounts outside the TSA.

He explained that few MDAs were given exemptions on certain grounds by the Federal Government, but added that many others were flouting the TSA policy.

Abor stated this during a meeting in Abuja with a civil society group, United Global Resolve for Peace, led by its Executive Director, Shalom Olaseni. This was contained in a statement issued by the UGRFP on Sunday.

The statement disclosed that the meeting discussed, among other things, charges being paid by the public to SystemSpecs Nigeria Limited for the running of the e-collection platform, REMITA, at N150 per transaction and the imposition of the charges on Nigerians by the Central Bank of Nigeria without recourse to the National Assembly or the public.

The TSA Director stated that his office had acted in good faith at all times, adding that the level of compliance with the TSA directive was “100 per cent.”

The statement read in part, “The director, however, conceded that certain accounts belonging to some Ministries, Departments and Agencies had yet to be reflected on the TSA platform, noting that they were exempted on certain grounds by the Federal Government while some others continue to illegally operate accounts on the fringes of regulation.”

Olaseni in his remarks called for the promulgation of a law to give legal backing to the TSA, arguing that this was necessary to ensure that the policy survived the current administration.

He said, “We reiterated our position that paying N150 is a needless cost borne by the Nigerian public. It is our position that there is indeed room to review the service charge from N150 to not more than N50 payable per transaction and at the expense of the government.

“It is also our position that there is an urgent need to legislate on the treasury single account scheme to give it a legal instrument that makes it not just a state policy but one that cannot be arbitrarily done away with by subsequent governments.”

UGRFP pledged to continue partnering with the public and private sectors in ensuring that the scheme was not hijacked or brought to ruin by unscrupulous officials.