The Accountant General of the
Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, has revealed that the Federal Government on a
monthly basis saves about N4.7 billion that would have been spent on bank
charges following its introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Idris disclosed this in Abuja
while speaking at a two-day workshop for finance journalists on the TSA and
other public financial management reforms.
According to him, the amount
represents the various charges, interest on loans and account maintenance fees
that were hitherto imposed by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) for holding funds
belonging to government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The AGF said the government had
been able to block leakages and avoid various bank charges on government funds
with the policy.
He said: “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 DMBs across the country.
“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 charges
associated with those borrowings, which hitherto amounted to N4.7 billion
monthly.”
Giving reasons for the workshop,
Idris said it was part of efforts to increase knowledge on why the Federal
Government opted to carry out the public finance management reforms, adding
that a major objective was to support the fight against corruption.
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