James Emejo in Abuja
The federal government Thursday said following the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in 2012, the sum of N10 trillion had been collected from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The implementation had reportedly led to the closure of over 20,000 bank accounts, which were hitherto operated by commercial banks.
The Director of Information Technology Department in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Mr. Afolabi Ajayi, gave the figures during a peer review mechanism of MDAs to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
He said the government had been able to save over N45 billion in monthly interest on its borrowings from banks since the TSA came on board.
According to him, a total of N50 billion revenue from MDAs had also mopped up from commercial banks as a result of TSA implementation.
Ajayi also told the delegation led by the Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita that from April 2007 when the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was launched to February 2018, over N288 billion had been saved.
He explained that the savings resulted from the difference between the amount government would have released to MDAs based on appropriation and actual amount released and paid through IPPIS.
According to him, from the period when IPPIS was introduced to date, 506 MDAs with total staff strength of 344,625 have been integrated into the electronic payment platform.
“Since IPPIS commenced, many departments and agencies having realised that personnel cost was no longer coming to them for direct disbursement, have embarked on recruitment to utilise their approved manpower/personnel budget so much so that between September 2011 and now, many Nigerians have been employed in the IPPIS MDAs thereby reducing unemployment in the country.” Earlier the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Ahmed Idris said the office had fully digitalised its function, particularly those driving public finance reforms initiatives.
He said the purpose of the review is to share ideas among MDAs with a view to improving service delivery, adding that this would help to actualise government policies and programmes for the development of the country.
Idris said the areas outlined to drive the review are dynamic, robust and directly linked to the Federal civil service strategy and implementation plan for 2017 to 2020.
Essentially, the TSA, a financial policy proposed by the federal government in 2012 under the Jonathan administration, was fully implemented by the Buhari’s administration to consolidate all inflows from all agencies of government into a single account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The introduction of the policy has reportedly reduced corruption and saved billions of naira of public funds.
