The Federal Government (FG)
has expressed determination to extend the deployment of the Treasury Single
Account (TSA) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the current fiscal
year, 2017 reports ITRealms.
The Minister of Finance,
Mrs. Kemi Adeosun on Tuesday disclosed this
in Abuja at the opening
of a two-day retreat on the TSA, the Minister, who described the implementation
of the policy as a success story, said the Federal Government would expand the
programme and continue to persuade statutory agencies to come under the
Treasury Single Account.
The Minister who disclosed
that the Federal Government is already discussing with service providers, said
Government would improve the implementation and functionality of the TSA
because of its huge benefits.
She also stated that the
Government would be reaching out to TSA service providers in order to allow
other e-commerce and e-payment providers access the platform, which, according
to her, is very important to make the TSA as competitive as possible, in terms
of pricing.
“One of the challenges
that we have is who should bear the cost of the TSA? Currently, it is being borne
centrally but that is not sustainable. We are now working on how to stratify
the various agencies. Those who should bear their own costs and costs that
should be borne by the Government. This will be rolled out in this year,”
the Minister stated.
Speaking to the broader
benefits of the TSA, the Minister stated that the Federal Government, through
the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, has issued Circulars to
banks arising from revelations through the implementation of the whistleblower
policy, that some banks have not fully remitted Government funds in their
possession.
She stated, “There are
still funds in commercial banks and we have written to the banks, giving them a
window to come forward. Where in doubt, they have been asked to consult us. We
also have an audit team that has started the process of checking the
completeness of monies that were transferred into the TSA and already, they
have been able to recover a significant amount of money".
She stated that the TSA
policy is here to stay, saying the policy, which she described as an important
reform of the current administration, allows Government to reduce its borrowing
costs.
“The policy allows
us to manage our treasury functions with far more accuracy than what we had in
the past. There is still a long way to go but overall, we are very satisfied
with the progress we have made and we look forward to it being extended and
utilised far more as the year goes on,” the Minister stated.
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