Review… Alleged N25b TSA scam: Another puzzling debate

In from Ali Smart . . .
To say the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the federal government has generated much controversy as well as apprehension is clearly stating the obvious.
If feelers out there are anything to go by, it may be correct to say that the TSA scheme is facing its greatest challenge ever.
At issue is that some smart alecs are alleged to have profited so much to the tune of N25b at the expense of the country.
How the alleged scam was uncovered
Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) had last Tuesday, alleged on the floor of the Senate that SystemSpecs, the owner company of Remita, the e-payment and e-collection software deployed by the Federal Government to drive the implementation of the (TSA), was made about N25bn in one day for facilitating the compliance by the Ministries and Departmental Agencies(MDAs) with the TSA directive.
Melaye accused those he described as “financial scavengers and economic cankerworms” of trying to sabotage the anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration by mismanaging the TSA.
Expectedly, Senate President Bukola Saraki, promptly responded to the alarm by mandating a number of Senate’s committees to probe the alleged payment of N25 billion to Remita from the sum of N2.5trn allegedly mopped up from loose government accounts on September 15.
A rebuttal
But the company, however, dismissed the allegation of wrongdoing against it as a ploy to frustrate the scheme.
In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, the company requested the government to wade in so as to resolve the matter.
Picking holes in Melaye’s claims, a senior executive at SystemSpecs, who asked not to be named said the e-collection company was never paid the said sum being bandied in the media by those he described as “traducers.”
According to the official, “Contrary to the impression that has been created in the media that the treasury single account project began with the Buhari administration, the project has been on since 2012 when the Jonathan administration appointed us as the e-collection agent, using Remita, the software we designed for that purpose.”
Pressed further, he said: “The only difference is that most of the government agencies did not comply with the directive until the Buhari administration came on board because the Jonathan government did not demonstrate the political will to enforce it.
“President Buhari came and gave the government agencies a time frame within which they must comply with the directive or get penalised. That is why we were able to mop up about N2.5 trillion on deadline day.”
The top executive said that at the commencement of the project in May 2012, it was agreed that one per cent of the sums collected from the various government ministries, departments and agencies would be deducted and shared between Systemspecs, the affected banks and the CBN in ratios of .5 %, .4% and .1% respectively.
“That was how we were able to make a little over N3 billion, which we returned to the CBN as soon as we received a directive from the CBN Governor sometime in August that we should refund all TSA e-collection fees earned to date and suspend all charges on the platform.
“You can therefore imagine how shocked we were to hear Senator Melaye say that we were making N25 billion every day from the implementation of TSA. How on earth can that be possible?
“Ironically, the banks from whom the collections were made did not even know that they were making a lot of money from the exercise.
“It was when we received the directive to return the deductions we had made and their accounts were also debited that they realised that they had been making a lot of money from the exercise.”
In its letter to President Buhari, signed by the Managing Director of SystemSpecs, Mr. John Obaro, the company urged him to take measures that would ensure that the Federal Government does not play into the hands of some forces that are determined to frustrate the TSA initiative.

Read also: Blackmail won’t stop TSA probe, Saraki says

NLC riot act
Reacting to media reports that the TSA scheme was being mis-applied, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba has said the Congress will not accept the use of consultants for revenue collection for the government, saying the revenue collection process in the country should rather be strengthened with proper legislation
Speaking at a public lecture on good governance with special focus on the National Assembly, Comrade Wabba said the allegations of payment of about N25 billion to consultants operating the Treasury Single Account runs contrary to the principles of good governance and transparency.
He said the Congress however does not believe the allegation was true, asking the government to immediately put the matter to rest by either confirming or denying it.
The CBN has since said it was not aware of such payment to consultants.
Wabba said “If the allegation is true, it runs counter to the principle of good governance and transparency because here we are in an economy that is actually craving for resources to be able to drive development”.
Wabba’s counterpart at the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Comrade Boboi Kaigama has also warned that the TUC would not take it lightly should the allegations be true that few Nigerians were involved in the TSA scam.
As the controversy over the payment of TSA rages, it is certain that the last has not been heard on this matter, as allegation, and counter allegations have been thrown around. But in all Nigerians await the answers, hoping like virtually every controversy in the country involving probe of large sums of money, it would not be swept into under the carpet.

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