The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, has revealed that the Federal Government on a monthly basis saves about N4.7 billion that would have been spent on bank charges following its introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Idris disclosed this in Abuja while speaking at a two-day workshop for finance journalists on the TSA and other public financial management reforms.
According to him, the amount represents the various charges, interest on loans and account maintenance fees that were hitherto imposed by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) for holding funds belonging to government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The AGF said the government had been able to block leakages and avoid various bank charges on government funds with the policy.
He said: “The TSA has enabled us to make tremendous gains. We have successfully eliminated multiple banking arrangements resulting in consolidation of over 20,000 bank accounts, which were spread over DMBs across the country.
“This has further brought about transparency and effective tracking of government revenues. It has also led to the blocking of leakages and abuse, which characterised the public financial management before the implementation of the TSA.
“The TSA has taken us out of the era of indiscriminate borrowings by the MDAs and saved government charges associated with those borrowings, which hitherto amounted to N4.7 billion monthly.”
Giving reasons for the workshop, Idris said it was part of efforts to increase knowledge on why the Federal Government opted to carry out the public finance management reforms, adding that a major objective was to support the fight against corruption.
Daily Post