Senate probes Buhari’s TSA

The Senate, Wednesday, ordered an investigation into the management of the Treasury Single Account, TSA as operated by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Senate, after consideration of a motion sponsored by Senator Dino Malaye, representing Kogi West, and 34 others, ordered its committee on finance, banking, other financial institutions and ‎public account to do a thorough investigation of allegations of underhand practices in the management of the TSA.

Melaye, while speaking on the motion, accused the Federal Government agent, Remita, of making a whopping N25 billion in a single day for doing nothing.

According to him, in the course of the operations of the TSA, the federal government on September 15 mopped up the sum of N2.5 trillion through its e-collection agent, Remita, which charges one percent of all money passing through it.

He added that what it meant was that through the one percent Remita charges, the company made N25 billion largesse for doing nothing on September 15 alone.

Melaye argued that the engagement of Remita is a contravention of Section 162 (1) of the 1999 constitution, insisting that only the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was mandated to collect and disburse money on behalf of the federal government.

Read also: TSA: CBN gets N2tn from banks

“Where it had no branch, it might appoint another bank as an agent to perform the function of collections and disbursement of revenue on behalf of the government of the federation‎. Using Remita, who is not a registered bank completely offends the CBN act,” he said.

Contributing to the motion, Senator Ey‎innaya Abaribe (Abia south), advocated for a thorough investigation to unravel the issues surrounding the management of the TSA. He insisted that somebody must be held accountable and made to pay for what is going on with the TSA.

Senator Bassey Akpan, on his part, said he would personally lead a national protest if the corruption in TSA was not tackled, adding that it was depressing that the issue of corruption in the management of the TSA was coming up at a time the government was leading a frontal war against graft.

The Senate thereafter ordered the CBN to stop any form of payment to Remita pending the conclusion of investigation into the man of the TSA.

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