Mr John Obaro, the managing director of SystemSpecs, owners of
Remita, the e-payment and e-collection platform used for payments into
the Treasury Single Account (TSA), disclosed yesterday that SystemSpecs
and participating commercial banks took a “business decision” to return
to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the N8billion it collected as
charges for its services despite a valid contract backing the
transaction.
The refunded N8billion represents monies accrued from
the one per cent TSA remittance charge collected by SystemSpecs,
participating commercial banks and the CBN from federal government
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Obaro said this
during a public hearing on the “Abuse and Mismanagement of Treasury
Single Account (TSA) Regime” organised by the Senate Joint Committee on
Finance, Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions and Public
Accounts.
The Senate had in early November blown the whistle on
the one per cent charge on the reported N2.5 trillion moved to the TSA –
translating to N25 billion. The Senate consequently ordered a probe.
Obaro
told the Senate joint committee that although SystemSpecs was not
averse to price renegotiation in view of “emerging realities”, the one
per cent fee was discussed by all stakeholders, set by CBN and Office of
the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) and communicated to all
MDAs by the CBN.
“We did not charge above the agreed rates,” he insisted. “On
September 14, 2015, the OAGF had expressed concern at a project review
meeting about the fees considering the enlarged scope of the project.
SystemSpecs was not averse to price renegotiation. We wrote to the CBN
that we are open to renegotiation and that an all stakeholders’ meeting
be convened.
“Three weeks later, on October 7, we wrote again that an all stakeholders’ meeting should be convened to review processing fees.
“Two
weeks later, on October 27, we were instructed by the CBN to refund all
fees that had accrued to us in accordance with the contract. We
strategically chose to comply within 24 hours of receipt of their letter
as we did not want to allow the issue of fees in the heat of the moment
to becloud the work we had done in the delivery of TSA for Nigeria.
While refunding our own portion of the fees as demanded by the CBN,
however, we accompanied the refund with a fairly worded letter stating
why the fees legitimately earned in line with our contract should be
refunded to us.
“On November 11, two weeks after refunding all
fees and operating zero fees at the risk of a legal battle with other
stakeholders, without hearing our own side of the story, we were
erroneously accused of fraud, abuse and mismanagement of the TSA on the
hallowed chambers of this highly respected Senate.”
Obaro further said that the firm felt unfairly treated in the whole episode.
“To
say the least sir, we feel used, abused, unappreciated and abandoned by
the country for which we stuck out our necks and faith to deliver the
platform that made the TSA possible, which in other climes, all citizens
would be proud of, acclaimed, encouraged and motivated to further the
frontiers of greater technological breakthroughs and innovation,” he
said, just as he wondered how enforcing the terms of a validly signed
and subsisting contract amounted to fraud.
In what Obaro described
as an “unfortunate syndicated attempt” to discredit Remita, he said the
Senate was misled into believing that N25 billion was paid out to
SystemSpecs in one day for doing nothing. Nothing can be further from
the truth and, by now, it is obvious to the world that the Senate was
misled.”
According to him, the objective of the detractors was to
paint Remita black in order to achieve a set goal – to disrupt the
technology platform and force government to abandon the TSA policy.
“Our
consolation is that despite this barrage of syndicated attacks, many
Nigerians and international observers believe that this TSA way is the
way to go. We are proud that our indigenous Remita kick-started this
project at a time when CBN had written to OAGF in 2011 to delay the
commencement of the project because the technology was not yet in
place.”
Obaro reminded the federal government of the importance of contract sanctity.
CBN, Accountant-General Differ On TSA Remittances
Meanwhile,
the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the accountant-general of the
federation (AGF), Idris Ahmed, yesterday differed on the size of the TSA
remittances.
While the CBN governor told the Senate joint
committee that TSA remittances by December 8 was N2.038 trillion, the
AGF said it was N1.8 trillion.
According to the CBN governor,
remittances through Remita was N1.419 trillion; Real-time Gross
Settlement’ Systems (RTGS) N233 billion, and CBN direct payments, N269.7
billion.
Emefiele confessed that he had been aware of the one per
cent charge until the Senate blew whistle. He described the charge as
“too high” and “exorbitant”.
“The truth is that I would like to
confess that I did not really know (because I have to say what I know)
that there is one per cent charge being taken on that account until the
Senate and the House of Representatives raised it when we were summoned
to the office of the Senate president and I sounded very surprised at
that session and I promised that I was going to look into it.
“Indeed,
I asked, who is Mr Obaro and what is this N25 billion about? I was very
surprised because I didn’t know anything about it. It was immediately
after that, that I swung into action and I discovered that the issue
raised in the office of the Senate president was right and I immediately
called the MD of Remita to find out who he was, and I insisted that the
money had to be reversed. Immediately after that, it was reversed,” the
CBN boss explained.
The accountant-general told the Senate joint
committee that, by his records, there was no signed agreement by his
office on TSA remitting service.
“As far as I am concerned, there
is no agreement between the CBN and our office that is duly signed. As
far as I am concerned, my office has not made any payment to any service
provider with respect to moving TSA. We have not made any payment. We
have not engaged anybody and, therefore, we have not paid anybody. I
don’t have any reason to hide any information; what i told you is what I
know,” Ahmed said.
Debt Profile: Reps To Probe All Refineries’ Operations
The
House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the operations of
the nation’s four petroleum refineries in order to determine their
viability and whether there is a need to privatise them.
The
House’ resolution was consequent upon the unanimous adoption of a
motion, tagged “Call for Discontinuance of the Operations of Nigeria’s
Refineries Due to the Heavy Debt Incurred by the Refineries and the Need
for the Federal Government to Privatise the Refineries,” sponsored by
Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama at plenary yesterday.
The mover of the
motion noted that Nigeria’s four refineries were constructed primarily
to refine crude oil for local consumption and export to generate revenue
for the country, adding that over the years, the refineries have had
series of challenges and huge resources had been expended on their
turnaround maintenance (TAM).
Ogbeide-Ihama reminded the House
that Port Harcourt and Warri refineries were once sold to private
investors by the government of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, which
was reversed by the administration of the late President Umaru
Yar’Adua.
He expressed worry that the Kaduna Refining and
Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refining
and Petrochemical Company were reported by the NNPC to have incurred
debts amounting to about N129.07 billion in the months of August and
September 2015, and while their combined revenues in the month of August
was N146.617 billion, their expenditure was N207.287 billion in the
month of September.
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