James Emejo in Abuja
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on Tuesday reaffirmed its full support for the implementation Treasury Single Account (TSA) adding that it would block revenue leakages particularly in government agencies.
It therefore, refuted a media report which portrayed the commission as describing the TSA and the Consolidated Account as unconstitutional.
The commission, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed said it had consistently decried the practice whereby certain agencies would operate several accounts not known to government.
“RMAFC is happy now that with TSA, all transactions in public accounts would remain transparent and open to public scrutiny,” it said.
According to the statement: “Some of the Agencies include Nigeria Maritime Safety and Administration, Nigeria Ports Authority, NIPOST, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Communications Commission, National Broadcasting Commission, Bureau of Public Enterprises and others-deemed to belong to the entire Federation and not one tier of Government by virtue of their operations and utilisation of national assets like airwaves, air space and maritime resources.”
It said the RMAFC “wholeheartedly welcomed the introduction of TSA as it aligns with its mandate of stopping revenue leakages and would serve as veritable tool for eliminating such leakages.”
On the said publication which claimed that an official of the Commission spoke to the daily on condition of anonymity, the Statement explained that It added that “the position of the newspaper does not reflect its views as nowhere did the Commission mention nor describe TSA and Consolidated Revenue Fund as unconstitutional.”
It said:”The clarification became necessary in view of the fact that long before the introduction of TSA, RMAFC had always advocated for stringent measures to curtail the problem of revenue leakages particularly in Agencies of Government that were in the habit of not remitting revenues generated by them on account of their enabling Acts which allow them to do so. The Commission only advised for amendment of the subsisting Acts to compel them to remit into the Federation Account.”
