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FG saves N48bn from Treasury Single Account

By on November 14, 2016

The implementation of the Treasury Single Account by the Federal Government has resulted in a monthly savings of N4bn in cost of funds such as bank charges, accounts maintenance cost and others imposed by Deposit Money Banks.

Having been introduced exactly a year ago, a total of N48bn has so far been saved by the government.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, confirmed the savings by the government during an interview with our correspondent on the sidelines of a sensitisation workshop on continuous audit in Abuja.

The TSA is a platform, which was used by the government to unify all its accounts by ensuring that all money belonging to the Federal Government is kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The initiative, which took off fully in September 2015, had been complied with by over 900 agencies of the government.

Since the commencement of the TSA, there have been series of job losses in banks owing to a decline in deposits.

Ecobank Nigeria, for instance, has sacked over 1,040 of its employees while Diamond Bank Plc sacked over 200 members of its workforce.

But Idris said since the commencement of the TSA last year, the government had been able to block revenue leakages and wastage.

He said, “The Treasury Single Account is one of the initiatives to block leakages. Part of the leakages that we have is the cost of borrowing. I can assure you that by the TSA implementation, we have saved the Federal Government over N4bn cost of funds per month.

“Every month, we used to incur as much as about N4bn and that is no more because of the application and implementation of the TSA. Leakages have been blocked. There is more transparency of expenditure and more control and we are doing a lot more in blocking leakages.”

He said with effective blocking of loopholes, the government had been able to effectively ensure prudent management of its resources.

Idris said, “The blocking of leakages is effective because everything is being monitored. Resources are scarce and so we cannot just roll out resources without enough mechanism to monitor what it is being applied for.

“We will not do only a post-audit exercise; we will also do a pre-audit so that whatever is being done is verified before expenditure is incurred.”

Apart from the TSA, he said the government was also taking other initiatives to improve the management of public finance.

His said at a time when the resources of government were becoming lean owing to the economic downturn, there was a need for the country to get value for money in the conduct of government business.

“We are also taking other initiatives to ensure prudent management of resources; we cannot embark on any wasteful venture anymore.

“It can no longer be business as usual and so the MDAs are committed to this and in particular, you can see the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit, which is another key thing because you don’t just roll out resources, you control utilisation,” he added.

According to Idris, the introduction of the TSA had reduce theft of public funds, recalling in 2011, the country lost a whooping sum of N70 bn to failed banks.

He said in the past, MDAs operated more than 10,000 accounts that were mostly dormant and that the funds were not used to develop the country.

He also declared that the country had thus far recorded about N4.36tn after unifying all the government’s accounts under the new arrangement.

 

[Punch]