Heritage bank, others still withholding MDAs fund meant for TSA

More than one year after, the federal government has once again decried the resistance of some money deposit banks (MDBs) in effecting complete compliance to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime by remitting all funds belonging to MDAs.

Otherwise, the government is expressing worry as few banks are still frustrating financial plans and performance of the government by trapping funds of some agencies without any reason.

Heritage Bank remains one of the commercial banks that are yet to fully comply with TSA by offloading and transmitting funds of federal agencies.

Revealing the problem in a recent media roundtable in Lagos, the managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Usman said her leadership is still tracking the Heritage Bank over the remains of its fund that has not been moved to the TSA since last year deadline.

He further noted that already, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has come into the matter and brokered a repayment plan between NPA and Heritage Bank.

Some of the affected funds are in foreign currencies which were deliberately trapped by the affected banks to remain afloat after all.

Giving additional insights on the merits of the TSA, the Minister stated that the Federal Government, through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, has issued Circulars to banks arising from revelations through the implementation of the whistleblower policy that some banks have not fully remitted Government funds in their possession.

Adeousn noted however that “There are still funds in commercial banks and we have written to the banks, giving them a window to come forward. Where in doubt, they have been asked to consult us. We also have an audit team that has started the process of checking the completeness of monies that were transferred into the TSA and already, they have been able to recover a significant amount of money”.

“The policy allows us to manage our treasury functions with far more accuracy than what we had in the past. There is still a long way to go but overall, we are very satisfied with the progress we have made and we look forward to it being extended and utilised far more as the year goes on.