Group challenges fees Nigerians pay for TSA, ICPC begins review in MDAs

United Global Resolve For Peace (UGRFP) has urged the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to review the exorbitant charges on Nigerians for the running of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).The non-governmental organisation also demanded that agencies that had benefitted from the skewed payment process be investigated and prosecuted immediately.

It urged the Federal Government to embark on awareness campaign in its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to properly emphasise the operation of the TSA, it added.In a statement in Abuja at the weekend, the executive director, Shalom Olaseni, said the initiative had an unintended benefit that helps the government to save about N40 billion monthly, which would have been unaccounted for, noting that many agencies, especially the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) benefited from the scheme in terms of accountability, informed financial decision and ease of payment.

According to him, despite the instruction by President Muhammadu Buhari that all MDAs should remit every kobo lodged in commercial banks to the TSA through Remita, some agencies like the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) have refused to use this technology for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has observed that a reasonable number of petitions it received were on infractions committed in the process of implementing the budgetary provisions and allocations of Capital Development Fund and Personnel Cost.To reduce the lapses in the utilisation of funds released to MDAs for capital expenditure and personnel cost, the commission will, from today, deploy its officers to MDAs for a systems study and review on 2017 and 2018 personnel cost as well as 2018 capital development fund.As part of the exercise, the commission will also deploy the Ethics and Compliance Score Card, to measure ethics and integrity standards in MDA operations.