News Post

The plenary session of the Senate on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 witnessed the consideration and passage of a Motion titled “Abuse and Mismanagement of Treasury Single Account (TSA)”sponsored by Sen. Dino Melaye and 31 others and seconded by Senate Majority Leader, Muhammed Ali Ndume.

Moving the Motion for the commencement of debate, Sen. Melaye who commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the bold step taken noted that the importance of introducing the Treasury Single Account was in compliance with the provision of Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. 

In addition, the Treasury Single Account is intended to prevent a situation whereby the revenues of the Federal Government is handled and kept by different bodies or spread in various accounts outside the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In view of this, the Federal Government on September 15, 2015 directed all its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to close their various accounts with Commercial Banks and pay all revenues into its account with the CBN under the policy of Treasury Single Account. 

Accordingly, Sen. Melaye observed that in the course of TSA operation, the Federal Government mopped up the sum of N2.5 trillion through its E-collection agent called REMITA who charges one percent of all monies passing through it, the implication of which the one percent of N2.5 trillion alone amounted to N25 billion largesse to REMITA. 

He further explained that the appointment of REMITA as an agent for the operations of TSA negates and contravene Section 162 (1) of the 1999 Constitution which provides that “the Federation shall maintain a Special Account to be called ‘The Federation Account’ into which all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police, Ministries or Departments of Government charged with Foreign Affairs and the residents of FCT Abuja and going by this provision all revenues accruing to the Federal Government ought to be paid directly to the said account.

The Senate Committee Chairman on FCT asserted that going by the provisions of the BOFIA Act 2007 which stipulates: i) No persons shall carry out any banking business in Nigeria except it is a company duly incorporated in Nigeria and holds a valid license under the Act. ii) Any person who transacts business without a valid license under this Act is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 10 years or a fine of two million naira or both. He submitted that the activities of REMITA is a gross violation of BOFIA Act and another attempt to rip tax payers of their hard earned money that would have been channeled to other sectors of the national economy.

Other Senators that lent their voices in support of the Motion include Muhammed Ali Ndume, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, Shehu Sani, John Enoh, Bassey Albert Akpan, Ali Wakil, Biodun Olujimi, Kabiru Gaya, Adamu Aliero, Ibrahim Gobir, Shittu Muhammed, Sam Anyanwu and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the day’s session. 

The Motion scaled through with three prayers stated below:

1) Commend Mr. President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation for the introduction of the Treasury Single Account.

2)    Mandate the Senate Committees on Finance, Banking and other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts to carry out a holistic investigation on the matter and report back in four weeks. 

3) Urge the CBN, Federal Ministry of Finance, to suspend all payments to REMITA pending the outcome of the Committee’s investigation.