Senate petitioned over alleged plan to frustrate TSA application

Fresh crisis over the application of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has re-emerged in the Senate.
Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has received a petition accusing the Upper Chamber of seeking to frustrate the application of the TSA policy through its last resolution in which the chamber among other recommendations urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to terminate all contracts relating to the TSA.

The petition, which was sent by a group called The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) ‎asked the Senate to immediately rescind its position, pointing out that, “the recommendations, if implemented as adopted, would represent a deadly attack on the FGN TSA project with a view to killing it and reversing all the gains recorded within the short time of its implementation‎.”

Signed by the Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran‎, the petition raised questions about the resolution of the Senate.

“Could it then be safe to conclude that there is a move within the Senate to use the termination of the contract, which will naturally frustrate the TSA project, still at its infancy, as an excuse to exempt the Senate from compliance with TSA to which President Muhammadu Buhari has consistently pledged commitment?

“Did the Senate consider possible implications of forcing the CBN to immediately terminate the contract?

“‎What measures if any has the Senate proposed to manage the consequences on the economy in case of immediate disruption of the already settled nationwide TSA payment and revenue collection processes?

“How will the about 900 MDAs already operating on TSA continue their payment and revenue generation operations the next morning after the CBN is forced to cancel the Remita contract?

“What should happen to the investment in infrastructure, processes and people already put in place on account of the FGN TSA by the 18 commercial banks, over 400 micro-finance banks and other players in the electronic financial ecosystem?

“How are the millions of Nigerians who now pay for critical health services and students who pay tuition and other fees through TSA supposed to undertake such transactions the morning after the CBN would have been railroaded to cancel the Remita contract?”