Senate Trims N7.6billion TSA Charges to N656.5million

The Senate,on Wednesday, February 24, cut the N7.6 billion accrued charges to Systemspecs, commercial banks and Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, from transfers to Treasury Single Account, TSA, by government agencies to N656.504 million.

The Upper Chamber also ordered the CBN to terminate the one per cent charge for any computation.

It also ordered the CBN to henceforth terminate the renewed contract it entered with Systemspecs in 2013, saying the award was at variance with major terms of agreement contained in the earlier 2011 contract.

It said the termination was necessary in view of the denial by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation that it knew nothing about the contract.

These resolutions were the aftermath of the adoption of the report of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Accounts and Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions which investigated the allegation of “payment of N25 billion to Remita” in 2015.

While presenting the report for Senate’s consideration yesterday, chairman of the joint committee, Senator John Enoh, said the committee acknowledged Systemspecs’ provision of quick solution through the availability of its Remita software for the transfers.

However, he said the organisation should only be paid based on CBN’s approved rate band of between N500 and N700 per transaction for electronic transfer or payments as specified in the revised guideline.

The committee further said the reduction of N7.6 billion to N656.6 million was dictated by what it called the use of “upper end of the approved band of N700.00 per transaction for N937,869 transactions between March 1 and November 30, 2015.”