Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance on Thursday gave vivid account of how Federal Government recovered the sum of N1.6 billion illegal bank charges from one of the deposit banks under the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Adeosun states this during an investigative public hearing into the status of TSA held at the instance of the Ad-hoc Committee set up by the leadership of House of Representatives, chaired by Abubakar Danburam-Nuhu (APC-Kano).
Adeosun explained that level and nature of the operations required the expertise of such consultants.
“In one branch of a bank, we recovered N1.6 billion; just one branch. There are many other branches.
“You are looking at the many accounts holding government money before the TSA started. There is a lot,” the Minister observed.
According to her, additional sum of N600 million was recovered from some commercial banks in continuation of the Treasury Single Account policy.
Adeosun explained that the fund was illegally taken by the banks as excess charges on the accounts they maintained for government agencies in the pre-TSA era.
The Minister added that the sum of N600 million was recovered as part of the ongoing mopping up of government funds in accounts still being traced.
“We got the N600 million recently, which was for charges by these banks. It was returned and we are still on it,” the minister told the committee.
Adeosun also said the TSA had been implemented almost “100 percent” by the MDAs, though she admitted that a few accounts still outside the system were being followed up.
According to her, some accounts being operated by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and West African School Certificate (WAEC) were exempted from the TSA because of the nature of their operations.
However, the lawmakers expressed concerns over the continued engagement of consultants to audit MDAs’ accounts in such banks when the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation could performed such function.
In her response, the Minister maintained that in the circumstances, the engagement of consultants assisted in achieving faster result.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
