Tag: TSA funds

Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed, has insisted that the funds that have accrued to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) remain intact, challenging anyone who has any fact and figure to the contrary to make such information public.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister reiterated the fact that less than 2 trillion Naira has accrued to the TSA, hence the 1% charges on the amount could not have amounted to 25 billion Naira.

Reacting to Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose’s insistence that there were fraudulent activities in the management of the TSA funds, Mr Mohammed said that Governor Fayose has been unable to invalidate the facts that he had earlier stated concerning the TSA.

“Facts”

“For the sake of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora who have been following the TSA debate, we hereby restate the facts:

• The TSA deal was initiated by the immediate past administration but only enjoyed a new lease of life under the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari because of his sterling leadership qualities of accountability, transparency, uprightness and respect for the rule of law.
• Any agreement on the TSA charges was reached long before the present administration assumed office.
• Even if the agreement on the charges is one per cent, it could not have amounted to 25 billion Naira because the total amount of money that has accrued to the TSA is less than 2 trillion Naira.
• Even if one per cent was agreed as charges, whatever accrues therefrom was meant to be shared among the CBN, Systemspecs (the owner of the Remita software) and the commercial banks, hence no single company could have collected 25 billion Naira as charges.
• As at the time the controversy over the TSA broke, the total amount of money in the TSA was less than 800 billion Naira.
• The TSA has neither been enveloped in any fraud nor has any money from the account been diverted.
• The Senate’s investigation of the TSA issue is within its oversight responsibilities and is never a confirmation that the TSA funds have been diverted or that indeed one single company has made 25 billion Naira as charges.

”These are the issues and we stand by them, irrespective of a rabble-rousing and demeaning statement from any quarter,” the Minister said.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, has dismissed as a contrived distraction, the alleged fraud in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the rumoured diversion of the TSA funds to bankroll elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Minister said that if those behind the accusation had allowed themselves some measure of honesty, they would have realized that there has not and there will be no such impunity under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

”It is understandable that the psyche of those who are making the frivolous allegations concerning the TSA has been badly affected by the impunity that permeated the country under the immediate past administration, when unappropriated funds were freely used to finance elections and the public till was seen as an extension of personal piggy banks.

”But the lies that have been wilfully disseminated by scandalmongers over the TSA cannot and will not fly, because it was precisely to put an end to such impunity that Nigerians voted massively for President Muhammadu Buhari, who has an unblemished reputation for integrity, due process, transparency and the rule of law,” he said.

The Minister assured Nigerians that no one has tampered with the TSA funds, saying though the TSA was initiated under the previous administration, the reason it has begun to enjoy a new lease of life and attract national attention is because of the political will and transparency demonstrated by President Buhari.

”Those behind the rumour that a single company, Systemspecs, made 25 billion Naira from charging 1% of TSA funds that passed through the company’s software, REMITA, may need to return to elementary school to get some lessons in arithmetic.

”This is because in order for 1% charge to fetch 25 billion Naira, the funds accruing into the TSA must have reached 2.5 trillion Naira. Yet, the total amount of funds in the TSA to date is still much less than 2 trillion.

”More importantly, at the time the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered that all monies that were erroneously charged as ‘revenue’ be returned to the TSA Account late last month, the TSA had less than 800 billion Naira. It therefore beggars belief that anyone could attempt to mislead the public by raising a false alarm that a firm made 25 billion Naira in TSA charges,” Mohammed said.

He appealed to Nigerians not to allow those who have been funding their lavish lifestyles and encouraging corruption, to the detriment of ordinary citizens and without bothering about national interest, to sabotage the laudable TSA programme with contrived lies, dangerous innuendoes and outright misinformation.