No Proper Safeguards to Ensure Effective Implementation of TSA, Says CITM Boss

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The Registrar/Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Treasury Management (CITM), Olumide Adedoyin, yesterday said there were no proper safeguards in place to ensure the effective implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

 Adedoyin, who stated this while addressing reporters in Abuja, called for continuous training and retraining of personnel handling the process, saying some of those saddled with the responsibility do not actually understand it effectively.

He said laws governing procurement and other things have to be further domesticated as a means of checking wastage in the system.

He said, “Like every government policy, the TSA as it is a function of just an account. It is not an app, it is not a policy, it is just an account. What the TSA tries to do is to make sure that the government has its resources in place and are able to know what they have at any given time. “Now the first step the government was supposed to take was to do what we call cash pulling. Call up your resources from every bank into one single account. Once you do so, those bank accounts you have should not be closed down, rather you try to moderate them into receiving banks.

“They receive on your behalf but you cannot disburse from those banks, while at the end of the day you just have an online real time balance to make sure that what comes in is being accounted for.

 “That was supposed to be the function. But what we discovered at the end of the day was that there are some little processes and challenges within that platform because the back end for the audit was not adequately secured.

“So if you did not secure the back end, despite being able to make resources and bring those resources, then there is a little bit of opening in the back that could lead to hemorrhaging of resources and so on. I think as it is, we have actually reached out to the government on different fora, trying to make them understand that the importance of putting these back ends in check is quite important. Secondly we want to believe too that there must be an orientation of the continuous training and retraining of individuals.”

He added, “You would be surprised that some that are saddled with these responsibilities do not actually understand the process effectively. The problem as it is, is that there are no safeguards in place. We talked about preventive mechanisms lacking; we talked about allowing treasury management to impact your cash management processes. That too is lacking. So these are those fundamental areas that we are concerned about.”