Delta State governor Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa seemed to be adamant over the Federal Government’s directive that all states should fully implement the Treasury Single Account (TSA) for the purpose of transparency and accountability to the people.
The Treasury Single Account was also aimed at enhancing and avoiding misappropriation of public funds as corroborated by Section 80(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, provides that all revenues received or payable to the federal government shall be paid into and forms one consolidated revenue fund of the federation but successive governments continued to operate multiple accounts.
Okowa said no matter how good a programme is, it should not be immediately adhere to, revealing that his Finance Commissioner, Olorogun David Edevbie was still understudying the FG’s directive.
The governor who stated this during his anniversary press briefing in Government House, Asaba, said, “In the first instance, there are so many other states of the APC that have not also embraced the TSA. It is something that we are understudying, it is not enough to hear about the very positive sides of a particular programme and you jump into it. You have to understudy it to ensure that you don’t make any mistake”.
Okowa who faulted the programme said, “we are aware that we need to apply it quietly otherwise it has its own challenges. Am sure that if you ask the commercial banks as at today, they have challenge with their profits”, reiterating that the state government would need to understudy it, “and the Commissioner for Finance is still understudying it”, he retorted.
The governor noted that the state would adopt the good aspect of the TSA, “so, we may likely be going into what I called a ‘modified TSA’ that will not impact negatively on our commercial banks”.
