The Senate on Wednesday asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to terminate forthwith the 2013 e-payment contract renewal with SystemSpecs and also disregard the one percent charge provided for in the contract agreement.
As part of its contract with SystemSpecs, the apex bank agreed on the deduction of one percent charge on all e-collections by SystemSpecs operator of REMITA Platform.
This is part of 11- point recommendations made by the Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts.
The Senate in plenary adopted the recommendations as presented by Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator John Owan Enoh.
The submission of the committee was however not debated as Senate President, Bukola Saraki, ruled that only the recommendations of the committee would be considered.
The Senate had, during its sitting on November 11, 2015, debated a motion on alleged “abuse and mismanagement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The upper chamber resolved to, among others, mandate its Joint committee on Finance, Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts to conduct holistic investigation on the matter.
It specifically mandated the committee to investigate the alleged abuse of the TSA and deduction of N25 billion from accounts of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the e-payment.
While adopting the 11 recommendations, the lawmakers directed the CBN to carry out in-house enquiry to sanitise its system of contract awards.
The committees were mandated by the Senate to investigate alleged abuse of Treasury Single Account (TSA) and deduction of N25 billion from accounts of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
While noting that the company deducted only N7.6 billion, the senate advised the CBN to pay N656.50 million as transaction cost for funds transfer collection for the period ended Nov. 30, 2015.
The senate’s approval of the payment was based on CBN wage band of N700 per transaction for electronic transfer payment which it approved.
The upper chamber also charged its standing committees to tighten their oversight role in order to ensure a hitch-free and smooth implementation of the TSA.
It directed the Committee on Public Accounts to investigate and ensure that payments being made by the CBN had not been made previously.
It told the committee to ensure that all payments made in excess of CBN approved rates were paid back to the Federation Account.
In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, commended the committees and reiterated that the CBN must show evidence of compliance with all the directives of the Senate.
He said that the report and recommendations had proved that the Senate was not against the TSA as alleged, but was only against exorbitant charges in the name of TSA.
“I think that the message we are sending out today is very clear that whatever is in the interest of our great country that will ensure proper use of funds, this senate will stand firmly for that.
“I think this is a good example; by this action, this country is saving close to between N22 billion and over N30 billion which is higher than the appropriation of a lot of ministries and departments today.
“It is mind-buggling to see the kind of money that would have just gone away to people if not because of this motion.
“We will have to ensure that the respective agencies, particularly CBN must comply strictly with these recommendations of the senate.
“I want to encourage our colleagues to ensure that in spite the kind of blackmail that we received in doing our work, we should follow the example that has been shown by these committees’’.
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