The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris, disclosed that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) had recorded N8.9 trillion gross inflow to date with 1,674 MDAs enrolled since full implementation commenced in September 2015 by the present administration.

This was a key revealation at a seminar organised by the Ministry of Finance, for financial journalists,over the weekend.

Idris, who was represented by the Director/Coordinator,TSA/e- Collection (Funds Department), Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh, said since its implementation, TSA had led to savings of over N40 billion monthly in Ways and Means charges.

The AGF, whose presentation was captioned: “The TSA: A Veritable Tool for Transparency and Accountability in Public Financial Management,’ said the TSA was imbued with such advantages as the ability to determine consolidated federal government cash position, and improved monetary policy implementation through the elimination of costs associated with liquidity management arising from deposit money banks (DMBs).

It also offers better traction in inflation management through reduction in Ways and Means and money supply, significant improvement in federal government liquidity position, improved budget implementation due to enhanced liquidity, and better control and oversight over MDAs’ operations.”

However, Idris pointed out that the TSA was fraught with implementation challenges, which have institutional, operational and technological colouration.

Institutional challenges included:

Capacity deficit
lack of clarity in stakeholder roles
conflicting directives and signals
resistance based on limited understanding of TSA
non-enrolment of key arms of government such as the National Assembly.

Operational challenges of TSA

Lump sum transfer of MDAs’ balances by DMBs
Transfer/payment to wrong TSA (Sub) accounts
Difficulty in accessing bank statements and associated reconciliation issues
Difficulties in processing foreign currency receipts and payments as well as multiplicity of sub-accounts.

Technological challenges

Limited IT infrastructure leading to slow consummation of transactions and generation of reports
Lack of robust data management system for analysis and decision-making
Non-implementation of spending limit controls by extra-budgetary entities/funds
Lack of robust reporting and budget implementation capabilities.
The AGF disclosed that prior to the full implementation of TSA, there were multiple bank accounts totalling over 17,000 and countless dormant accounts with huge balances, as well as inability to determine consolidated cash position of government.

He stressed that there also existed a problem of borrowing and incurring charges when there were idle balances in MDAs’ accounts as well as lack of coordination among key fiscal agencies.

The AGF noted that poor cash planning, inability to fund government budget, and lack of or delayed remittance of revenue/collections were rife, adding that over N70 billion of federal government funds were lost to failed banks.

https://www.financialdigest.com.ng/

It is well

Huge amount only on paper

How do we overcome all these challenges?

baba is working but they should spend the money judiciously.by the time buhari complete his tenure in 2023 Nigeria will be more richer than this.

What exactly is this TSA? Is it revenue, profit, or just MDA's purse?