President Buhari used just one stroke of the pen yesterday to block what many Nigeria believe is the biggest source of leakage in Government revenues, when he directed all ministries and government agencies to maintain the Single Treasury Account (TSA) domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Henceforth, all Federal Government Ministries, Department and Agencies are now to run a single account, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) for all revenues, incomes and other receipts.
This is a directive issued by President Muhammadu Buhari to specifically to promote transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution, a press statement to this effect said.
“Henceforth, all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into TSA or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved” Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President, Media & Publicity, Laolu Akande, said in press statement on Sunday.
The TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and utilization of government cash resources.
It can be a singular bank account or a set of linked accounts through which the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time.
The directive applies to fully funded organs of government like the Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Foreign Missions, as well as the partially funded ones, like Teaching Hospitals, Medical Centres, Federal Tertiary Institutions, etc.
Agencies like the CBN, SEC, CAC, NPA, NCC, FAAN, NCAA, NIMASA, NDIC, NSC, NNPC, FIRS, NCS, MMSD, DPR are also to comply.
For agencies that are fully or partially self-funding, Sub-Accounts linked to TSA are to be maintained at CBN and the accounting system will be configured to allow them access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions.
According to Laolu, the presidential directive would end the previous public accounting situation of several fragmented accounts for government revenues, incomes and receipts, which in the recent past has meant the loss or leakages of legitimate income meant for the federation account.
It can be recalled that the President had promised state governors at the inaugural meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, in June, that under his watch, all revenues prescribed for lodgement into the federation account will be treated as such and that he will ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws on accounting, allocation and disbursement.
