By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Federal Government is currently compiling the lists of Deposit Money Banks that are yet to remit government funds in their custody into the Treasury Single Account.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Reconstituted Treasury Single Account Implementation Structures.
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.
The Minister recalled that the government in 2018 conducted a post implementation compliance exercise to determine the extent to which Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Deposit Money Banks complied with the Presidential directive on TSA of 7 August, 2015.
According to her, huge amounts of public funds were still trapped in commercial banks, adding that the list of the affected banks would soon be sent to anti-graft agencies for further action.
She said, “It has been reported that the banks have not been co-operating with the Consultants assigned to sweep these funds to the TSA.
“I therefore take this opportunity to call on the affected banks to transfer all remaining balances in the accounts of Federal Government owned MDAs in their custody without express exemption to the TSA.
“We are compiling the list of affected banks and MDAs for submission to anti-corruption agencies for enforcement. For the avoidance of doubt, except for selected accounts of NNPC and WAEC, no other MDA or fund of Federal Government is exempted from the TSA.
“If in doubt about the status of any account of Federal Government MDA in your custody, re-confirm from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.”
Ahmed also said that between January and November this year, the Federal Government processed 20 million transactions valued at N19trn through the Treasury Single Account.
She said during the period, aggregate collection of N7trn was made from 22 million transactions, pointing out that “of all our reforms, the TSA is arguably the most popular both locally and internationally”.
As a public trust, she said Nigerians of all works of life monitor its progress and voluntarily report observed non-compliance to appropriate quarters.
Ahmed said, “Our TSA experience has been a pleasant one. The centralization of our banking arrangement has made it easier to determine government cash balances, reduce cost of borrowing, enhance liquidity, block leakages and improve internally generated revenue performance.
“Using the TSA platform, we have since automated direct deduction of operating surplus of eligible agencies. At the last count, 16 agencies are covered and more will be added in the coming months.
“The impact on government internally generated revenue performance has been impressive. Between January and October 2021, a total of N86bn in revenue was generated through this means.
“Aggregate collection of N7trn was made from 22 million transactions between January and November, 2021 while N19trn worth of payments were processed from 20 million transactions within the same period.”
The Finance Minister said the government is aware of the challenges MDAs have been facing since early December, 2020 with respect to access to TSA bank statement and creation of service types for collection.
She, however, called on the Inter-Ministerial TSA Implementation Committee to prioritize solution to these challenges so that MDAs can reconcile and prepare their end-of-year financial statements in good time.
In line with government’s desire for ICT driven processes, she charged the Committee to ensure that the solution is one that enables MDAs to access detailed bank statements online and on-demand while at the same granting unfettered online and on-demand access to all MDA TSA bank statements to the Treasury.
