CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The background of Treasury Single Account (TSA) is in line with the presidential Order No. 55 (2011), which stipulated that the Bureau of Treasury (BTR) will institute a Treasury Single Account to receive and remit collections of internal revenue taxes/customs duties from Bureau of Internal Revenue/Bureau of Customs, authorized money depositing banks and also National Government Agencies from authorized government depository banks. The TSA will be maintained at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), shall tally with the policy of government on control of its each resources and financial management and will also allow the unionism of the structure of bank accounts of the government to ease consolidation and optimal dispensation of cash resources of the government (Ahmed, 2016). Ahmed (2016) also states that TSA is a vital tool for consolidation of cash resources of the governments, thus reducing the cost of borrowing. In nations with multiple banking systems, the institutionalization of TSA will serve as a priority in the public financial management process.
Yusuf (2016) opines that the president of Nigeria’s order to all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and extra ministerial departments of the federal government to commence reimbursements of all the incomes, revenues and other receipts of the government into a pool of single account maintained in CBN is high esteem and commemorative and a right path in the right direction to ameliorate corruption in the system and polity. This is notwithstanding the fact that there is an unholy alliance between MDAs and banks but the institutionalization of TSA is laden with greater expectations of future economic prospects due to its possibility of intruding accountability and transparency. The TSA is a union structure of government’s bank accounts aiding consolidation and effective utilization of cash resources of the government. With the institutionalization of TSA, all the transactions of the government will have a consolidated view of its position at any time (Yusuf, 2016).