Transparency: Ambode like Buhari approves single account for all govt transactions
Adetokunbo Fakeye
Lagos State Government has announced that, starting from 1st of September, 2015, in the effort to efficiently improve on the processes of revenue generation and collection in the state and to ensure proper accountability and transparency all Government accrued revenues will be operating a single account.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Permanent Secretary/Accountant General of the State, Mrs Abimbola Umar.
According to the statement, the State Government took the decision to address the challenges previously faced with the operation of the multiple account system.
It stated that, Gov. Ambode said the operation of a Treasury Single Account (TSA) aside providing transparency and accountability will also encourage tax payers to request for a single account before making their payments.
The development, it said, is in line with the objective of the move by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that all government revenue accrues to one consolidated account.
In addition, all the affected revenue collecting banks have been mandated to immediately close all the existing multiple revenue accounts domiciled in their banks to give room for a single revenue accounting system in line with the Accountability and Transparency Policy of the current administration.
“With this development, it is expected that all parastatals, local governments and establishments will commence the operation of the TSA on September 1, 2015”, Ambode said.
Last week, Nigeria government announced through a circular that henceforth, all revenue generation for Federal government must be paid into one account for accountability and probity.
According to the circular made available to NigerianEcho, the TSA is to aid transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of her agencies shall be paid into the TSA as follows: Account Name: Accountant General (Federal Sub-Treasury), Account No. 3000002095 maintained in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved.
This development, if follow as stipulated by law, according to an economist would safe huge amount of money for the government, because it would block many holes where money are passing through to individual pocket.