Labour unions, Thursday, in Abuja called on the Federal Government to investigate allegation of fraud in the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
This development unfolds as Central Bank Governor (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, confirmed that the CBN did not sign any contract with Remita under his watch, even as sources within the bank say the Sanusi and the former CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, in 2011 facilitated the transfer of government revenue to the TSA.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), made the call at a one-day public lecture with the theme: Cost of Good Governance with Special Focus on the National Assembly.
Already, the Senate had ordered its committees on finance, banking and financial institutions and public accounts to investigate operations of TSA over alleged irregularities.
This was after Sen. Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi West), on Wednesday, alleged financial mismanagement in the TSA fund to the tune of N25 billion.
Reacting, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said such money given to a contractor would have been used to fix some of the challenges facing the country; “This is unacceptable.”
He urged the government to quickly dispel the rumour surrounding the issue as a matter of national importance.
He also called on workers to play effective role in the monitoring of political office holders so to hold them accountable to the people.
He said the public lecture was organised to highlight issues that affect the economy; workplace and decent work, social and security issues and unemployment.
“This type of platform is necessary to pool resources together and to provide policy options for government and employers on how best to respond to the challenges.
“At the end of the day, we will come out with a document which will be forwarded to government for policy implementation.”
On his part, the President of TUC, Bobboi Kaigama, called on the federal government to continue to take anti-corruption campaign seriously.
“We want to advise Mr President to appoint people that will support his change mantra; otherwise, it will be cat and mouse game.
“Nigerians are in need of jobs, food and social protection and we want Mr President to take these as priority.”
The guest lecturer, Mr Eze Oyekwere, called for the re-adjustment of certain political, public and judicial office holder’s salaries and allowances.
He said the basic salary of members of legislature was reasonable and should not be reduced but the allowances and perks of office should be reduced by a minimum of 40 per cent.
Oyekwere said the review of salaries and emoluments of NASS and other public office holders should be done at more frequent intervals.
“That is every four years is recommended.”
The Treasury Single Account (TSA) contract that gave out 1% as remittance fee for all government accounts moved to the Central Bank of Nigeria was signed under the regime of Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, a CBN source has revealed.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had claimed recently that the TSA policy was formulated under former President Jonathan. However, due to weak regulations and corruption in the system, several ministries, departments and agencies of the Nigerian government refused to conform to the TSA policy, and as such was never fully activated by the past government.
A company, Systemspecs Ltd, founded by John Tanimola Osaro in 1992, got the contract to oversee the remittance of funds into the TSA. “Remita” is the flagship product of Obaro’s Systemspecs Ltd.
According to our CBN source, the company built in a demand for a 1% fee to be paid to it for all remittances made into the TSA. System specs Ltd is chaired by a former Nigerian Ambassador to the United Kingdom and chair of SURE-P programme under Jonathan’s regime.
Since President Muhammad Buhari made it mandatory for MDAs to remit funds into the TSA, Systemspecs company had already been paid N8.6 billion when CBN officials claimed they detected the anomaly and forced Obaro’s company to refund the excessive remittance fee. So far, the TSA account has N1.5 trillion deposited in it, the CBN source said no commission was paid.
The Central Bank source said the apex bank was in the process of developing internal competency to enable it to handle the TSA. “We at the Central Bank should be able to handle remittances into the TSA without having to pay any so-called consultants a bloated remittance fee,” the source said.
Reacting, former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, confirmed that the CBN did not sign any contract with Remita under his watch.
He stated that it was the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation who must have signed the contract with Remita, further adding that only the Finance Minister is entitled to pay commission on such payments.
He said under his tenure as CBN Governor his team kept pushing for TSA.
According to him, the CBN’s call for the institution of TSA could be found in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting communiqués. He noted that some ministers in ex-President Jonathan’s government resisted the TSA apparently because they were doing deals with banks.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that it recovered N8.6 billion deducted by SystemSpecs, which provided the e-Payment/e-Collection solution used for the transfer of government funds from commercial banks to the treasury single account (TSA) domiciled with it. The Central Bank, according to sources in the CBN, had directed the company which owns the Remita software platform used for the funds transfer, when it was discovered that SystemSpecs had deducted as much as N8.6 billion for the remittance of government funds from banks to the TSA in the last few weeks.
However, CBN sources said the implementation of the modular solution was approved by the former CBN Governor who is currently the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, and former CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, in 2011 to facilitate the transfer of government revenue to the TSA.
SystemSpecs, whose Managing Director is Mr. John Obaro, is the owner of e-Payment/e-Collection solution, Remita.
The company’s website further revealed that the chairman of SystemSpecs is the former Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, Dr. Christopher Kolade.
Other directors of the company include a former Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, Mr. Emmanuel Ocholi, Mr. ‘Deremi Atanda and Dr. Emmanuel Eze.
Remita, which has been adopted by the CBN as the e-Payment and e-Collection platform of the federal government, is currently used by all 22 commercial banks and over 400 microfinance banks nationwide.
CBN sources informed that contrary to the assertion of the Senate that N25 billion had been paid to SystemSpecs, it was N8.6 billion that was deducted by the company for the transfer of N1.5 trillion since the enforcement of the TSA by the current administration in the last few weeks.
“Remita is an e-Payment/e-Collection software that has been in place since 2011, because the TSA transfers started under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
“It was Tunde Lemo’s baby and approved by former Governor Sanusi for the transfer of funds to the TSA.
“But when it was discovered that SystemSpecs had deducted about N8.6 billion for the recent TSA transfers of N1.5 trillion, we immediately asked them to reverse the deduction, which they complied with.
“The issue was brought to the attention of the president (Muhammadu Buhari) and he asked that the money be returned immediately which is what has happened.
“Going forward, it is our intention to review the contract on the software, because the CBN has its own software for e-Payments and e-Collections,” a CBN official, who did not want to be named, said.
The Senate on Wednesday, November 11, ordered its joint Committee on Finance, Banking and Other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts to probe the allegation that the e-Collection agent, Remita, had been paid 25 billion, being the 1 per cent commission it charged for the transfer of N2.5 trillion of federal government funds to the TSA.
The motion, which was moved by Senator Dino Melaye and adopted by the Senate, held that the N25 billion payment was in gross violation of Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution which states that “the federation shall maintain a special account to be called the federation account into which all revenues collected by the government of the federation except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the ministry or department of government charged with foreign affairs and the residents of the FCT, Abuja”.
According to Leadership the Senate while asking its committees on Finance, Banking and other Financial Institutions, and Public Accounts to carry out a holistic investigation and report back in two weeks, asked the firm, which is allegedly owned by a top South West member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to return the sum of N2.5 trillion which has allegedly been collected so far.
The Senate also asked for the prosecution of all members of Remita’s board of directors according to the provisions of the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA).
The Senate’s decision came after Senator Dino Melaye, supported by 31 other senators moved a motion titled “Abuse and Management of the TSA Regime.”
In his debate on the motion, Senator Melaye said that the “Federal Government on 15th of September 2015 mopped up the sum of N2.5 trillion through its e-collection agent called Remita. Remita charges 1 percent of all monies passing through it, the implication of which 1 percent of the N2.5 trillion mopped up on the 15th of September alone amounted to N25 billion largesse to Remita for doing nothing.
“The appointment of Remita as an agent for the operations of the TSA negates and contravenes the constitution. The activities of Remita are a gross violation of the BOFIA Act and another attempt of ripping Nigerians of tax payers’ money.”
On his part, the Majority Senate Leader, Ali Ndume expressed surprised at the revelation given that the President assumed office on the back of no-tolerance for corruption campaign.
He said: “I didn’t believe that this could happen under this government. However, if it is true, the people involved are saboteurs, and must be compelled to return the money, and face the wrath of
the law”.
Speaking on the matter, the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Ibn Na’Allah, said: “Some people hide in the umbrella of consultancy to defraud the nation, and resort to social media. The 8th Senate
is distinct, and must do what is right, and in accordance with thelaw.
“The 8th Senate will not subject itself to public referendum through the social media. I want to assure Nigerians that the 8th Senate will bring whoever that is involved, and hunt himdown.”
Also contributing to the debate was Senator Akpan Bassey who posited thus: “I will personally lead the youths of this country on a protest against this present administration, if nothing is done to address the current state. We must rise! That is a total of N25 million in one day, and it is now N65 million.”
On his part, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe said: “When matters like this come up, it is no longer treated as partisan; otherwise, I would have asked: where is the promised change? When the investigations are done, let us make it known because someone would have given this instruction. We need to know that person, who is so powerful.
“Somebody made this decision, and we must ask; who gave this order? Who is that person in this country that is so powerful to direct MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) to pay money into a private account?
“We should not cover anybody in this investigation, no matter how highly placed. We are hearing that the money has gone up to N60 billion. One company is taking N60 billion of our money.”
In his concluding remarks, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki said “This is a very important subject matter. We hope that the committee will do a very diligent job that will come up to standard and quantify the nature of the motion. The committee has to quicken investigation because it is no longer acceptable for Nigeria to lose money to private organisations.”
