TheCable

Ahmed Idris, accountant general of the federation, says the federal government is now able to save N4.7 billion that would have been spent on bank charges before the advent of the treasury single account (TSA).

Idris gave this figure while speaking at a two-day workshop for finance journalists on the TSA and other public financial management reforms in Abuja.

He said the amount represents the various charges, interest on loans and account maintenance fees that were hitherto imposed by the deposit money banks for holding funds belonging to government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

In September 2015, the government had directed all MDAs to move all accounts from deposit money banks to the TSA as part of the public financial management reforms.

Going by his statement, the federal government has saved N108.1 billion between September 2015 and July 2017.

The initiative, which was used by the government to unify all its accounts, has been complied with by over 900 agencies of the government with 20,000 bank accounts closed while over N5 trillion had been moved from banks to the CBN.

The AGF said the government has been able to block leakages and avoid various bank charges on government funds with the policy.

“The TSA has enabled us to make tremendous gains. We have successfully eliminated multiple banking arrangements resulting in consolidation of over 20,000 bank accounts, which were spread over the Deposit Money Banks across the country,” he said.

“This has further brought about transparency and effective tracking of government revenues. It has also led to the blocking of leakages and abuse, which characterised the public financial management before the implementation of the TSA.

“The TSA has taken us out of the era of indiscriminate borrowings by the MDAs and saved government the charges associated with those borrowings, which hitherto amounted to N4.7bn monthly.”

Explaining the reason for the workshop, Idris said it was part of efforts to increase knowledge on why the federal government deemed it necessary to carry out the public finance management reforms, adding that a major objective was to support the fight against corruption.

Recently, there had been a court ruling directing seven commercial banks to remit funds belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the TSA. All banks except Skye bank had denied holding funds.

The suit has since been withdrawn by the federal government.