Petition Against The Senate Over Treasury Single Account (TSA)

Senate president, Bukola Saraki has received a petition accusing the Senate of frustrating the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime.

The petition, sent by a group, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), asked the Senate to immediately rescind its position, pointing out that “the recommendations 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 Senate, and also drew attention to the ‘national embarrassment’ the adoption of the Senate resolution might cause to the country’s business image.

“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 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?” ‎

“Would this not give an impression that Nigerian government and her agencies don’t do adequate analyses on contractual agreements before entering into them only to violate such agreement with impunity afterwards?” the petition queried.

“Our conviction is that it is grossly unfair, unethical, unjust, grossly punishing and extremely evil to attempt to change the game in the middle of the road in stark disregard for contractual terms. Unilaterally changing the agreed terms and mandating the CBN to reduce earned fees by over ten-fold and then terminate the contract without recourse to the contracting party, especially after value has been consumed is uncivilised and callous and such suggestion should never have emanated from the hallowed chambers in the first place,” the statement read.