TSA mandatory Policy, No exemption - says AGF

Ahmed Idris, Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) said last night  there are no exemptions to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of government which now mandate all revenue generating agencies to move all their accounts to a single Account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Since President Buhari’s directive on the new policy, there have been insinuations that agencies like the NNPC and CBN could get some form of exemptions because of the nature of their operations.

Meanwhile, government gross revenue in July dropped to N433.584 billion, lower than the N485.952 billion received in June by N52.368 billion.

 

Nigeria’s Excess.Crude Account is now at about $2.25 7 billion

Shut down and shut – in of production for maintenance and emergency repairs as well as declaration of force Majeure by SDPC majorly impacted negatively on crude oil revenue, the finance ministry said.

There was also revenue about $22.53million revenue loss due to drop in average price of crude oil from $65.76 billion  in May to $61.27 in June, 2015.

TSA whose implementation started under President Jonathan ‘s administration, albeit at a slower pace is specifically to promote transparency, especially in the face of dwindling revenue and will facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and utilization of government cash incomes.

The NNPC had raised concerns on the directive, stating that the Corporation needed a lot of money to run, suggesting that the Corporation could get an exemption.

The new General Managing Director of the Corporation, Emmanuel Kachikwu, was quoted ro have said that the TSA  directive was still being looked at, saying that, “to run an oil company you need a lot of funds to do it, if you don’t you will close down the
corporation and the production system will close down.

But giving clarifications.along that line after the Federations Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting where N511.799 billion was shared among the three tiers of government, Idris insisted that the policy provides that all agencies must comply.

He also disclosed that the government will  come up with adequate guidelines for the entire process and also to enlighten and education the general public.

“TSA is a government policy and for now, there is no exemption,” the AGF stated.

“All agencies that are 100 percent funded from the National budget, those that are partially funded through the national budget, those that are funded through some other means are all expected to key in. No exemption.

“I am not aware of any exemption,  and if it is being rumoured, we are here to debunk it, all agencies of government are supposed to key in as directed,” the AGF stated, clarifying BusinessDay concerns.

On the level of compliance,  the AGF noted, “We are on course. Agencies are complying  and we are about to bring out the guidelines.”

Also speakibg on the TSA, Anastesia Nwaobia, Permanent Secretary, ministry of finance explained that some agencies have Acts that allow them to generate revenue, use part of it to fund their operations and then remit the operating surplus to the Federation  account.

But she said with the enforcement of the TSA which is a further confirmation of the Federal government’s resolve to ensure adherence to the provisions of the constitution, all that will change.

She said with oil revenues going into a single account, government will be able to have an overview of the money it has in its account and better plan it’s expenditure.

She said the leakages that were inherent in the old order where “people use money as they want and decide what they want to return to government will no.longer be there.

“It will better control the management of our revenues,” she stated.

The permanent Secretary further onfirmed that dwindling oil revenue has led delayed salaries even at the Federal level.

She said these current challenges have also affected prompt holding of FAAC meetings which decide on how much to be shared among the federating units based on revenues generated. She was hopeful  that this would be better when revenues improves.

“It is a phase that we are going through and we hope that the  condition would improve so that salaries can be paid earlier,” she added.

Onyinye Nwachukwu