The National Assembly has silently protested the move by the federal government to include it on its list of government agencies for the execution of treasury single account (TSA).
The legislative arm of government, according to information obtained last week, said it would be counter-productive to include the national assembly on the list of government agencies expected to transfer its funds to TSA which is domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
It was learnt that the leadership of the two chambers of the national assembly had at the beginning of the month protested the move by the federal government to apply the TSA policy to the national assembly at a meeting with some government officials.
A source privy to information in the National Assembly told us that the protest was occasioned by delay in the payment of members’ October salaries.
According to the source, whereas members of the National Assembly usually receive their salaries between 24th or 25th day of every month, they did not receive alerts throughout the month of October up to the first week of November. The situation, he said, raised suspicion that their salaries might have been suspended on account of perceived non-compliance with TSA policy.
Shortly after assuming office on May 29, President Muhammadu Buhari had asked all government agencies to transfer their revenues to TSA with the mandate to complete the process unfailingly on September 15.
Although the instruction made ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as commercial banks where the funds were domiciled to panic, most of them had complied with the instruction on September 15 while the CBN moved to sanction those who failed to comply.
Therefore, the suspicion was rife between leaderships of both chambers of the National Assembly that the federal government might have suspended the salaries of lawmakers following the expiration of the September 15 deadline.
The development prompted a meeting between the Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Ana Daniel-Nwaobia, with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, in the National Assembly.
The source told our reporter that both Emefiele and Daniel-Nwaobia who first arrived at the office of Dogara at the first week of November were led to the office of the Senate president where they had useful discussions on the subject matter.
The source disclosed that both leaders of the National Assembly told the CBN governor and the permanent secretary that it would practically be impossible to enlist the National Assembly among government agencies to participate in TSA transfers.
According to him, both government officers were told that it would be counter-productive to deny the National Assembly with its sensitive assignment access to funds which they said would also affect the operations of the federal government that also needs the legislature to intervene in some of its urgent matters.
He further disclosed that the duo were told to concentrate TSA operations on the agencies of the executive and not attempt to include the National Assembly in the policy because it is a separate and independent arm of government.
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