TSA: Buhari’s eight days ultimatum in doubt as AGF drags on guidelines

Yesterday’s eight days fresh Presidential ultimatum to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to comply with the Treasury Single Account policy appears not feasible, as the office of the Accountant General of the Federation was yet to issue the new operational guidelines that would guide implementation, BusinessDay finds.

Ahmed Idris, Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) said two weeks ago, that his office was working out a new set of guidelines to aid effective process eventhough he admitted that the MDAs were already complying with the policy.

“We are on course. Agencies are complying and we are about to bring out the new guidelines,” the AGF had noted, briefing on the outcome of the recent Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.

The AGF also clarified that there would be no exemptions to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of government which now mandates all revenue generating agencies to move all their accounts to a single account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

But BusinessDay found out on Monday that the Office of AGF, saddled with the responsibility of ensuring the success of the policy has not concluded the operational guidelines to drive the policy.

The need to issue a revised guideline was due to the difficulty thrown up by the process which many say may not be as easy with just a fiat presidential directive.

It was still learnt for instance, that there are still ambiguities around the model to design for this new policy, and how it can work. There are also the legal issues, as to independence of certain bodies of government.

And for some of the government agencies which already have fiscal independence on account of the constitution, there may be need to review the laws and deal with the issues.

But while the AGF tries to figure out these challenges through the new set of rules, President Buhari in a new circular, directed all MDAs to fully comply with the TSA b y September 15, 2015 at the latest, or be ready to face sanctions, except otherwise expressly approved.

The directive became imperative as a number of MDAs are yet to comply with the directive which was given exactly a month ago to facilitate transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

Kene Offie, Director of Press, AGF told BusinessDay yesterday that they were still reviewing the guidelines, quoting a response she got from her boss (AGF).

“I can’t speak on the issue now but my boss said they are still working on the guidelines. But I will get back to you when it is ready,” she said, responding to BusinessDay concerns.

TSA implementation started under President Jonathan’s administration, albeit at a slower pace and it seeks to promote transparency, especially in the face of dwindling revenue and will facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

An earlier deadline of February 28, 2015 was given for compliance which was not accomplished, though  the emphasis then was on Nigerian Customs, Federal Inland Revenue Service and other revenue generating agencies.

Even till now, some MDAs are still being reluctant with excuses that they had not been officially informed or that they may possibly get exemptions.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, immediate past minister of finance had told BusinessDay that the MDAs were still struggling with the attendant technical difficulties of the new policy, which she admitted were still dragging compliance at the time.

Onyinye Nwachukwu