The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Ahmed Idris,
says the Federal Government plans to begins payment of staff salaries by
the 25th of every month, as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Idris, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, said “this is going to be given a
test, I believe, by this month’’.
The AGF also said that the government was working on a new
arrangement, which, if approved, would ensure payment of the salaries
before the monthly meeting of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee
(FAAC).
According to him, usually, salaries are paid after the FAAC
meeting, where revenue accruing to the federation’s account are shared
between the federal, state and local governments. “There is a standing
instruction of Mr President to pay salary on or before 24 or 25 of every
month and we will try as much as possible to comply and to abide by
that.
“We are taking a step further to make a provision whereby we can
accommodate salary payments even before FAAC. “This is going to be given
a test I believe by this month. “We will go to seek for necessary
approval of our political masters to make sure that at least salary and
other statutory payments are made even before FAAC. “Because we can
project how much they are and therefore we can prepare and hit the
ground running to make them realisable and actualised.
“Even where we delay FAAC, we can still pay salary.’’ Idris
dispelled the widely held belief that the Treasury Single Account (TSA)
policy is responsible for the delay in the payment of salaries and
attributed the situation to the crash in global oil prices, which has
affected the inflow of income to the country.
“Nigeria is practically making about 30 to 40 per cent of what it
used to make by way of revenue from oil and that has affected inflow
generally. “These inflows are what the federal, state and local
governments receive to service the economy.
“It is when we receive these resources and sit at the end of the
month for FAAC that the resources are shared among the three tiers of
government.
’’ Citing the benefits of TSA, Idris said that more than N2.7
trillion had been realised under a single account domiciled at the
Central Bank of Nigeria. He also said that the cost of borrowing by
government agencies had been reduced substantially and that the economy
was already a beneficiary of the policy. “The monies are stimulating the
economy in a way that delivery of social goods, services and efficiency
in government expenditure are being achieved.
“So I believe that they are already serving the purpose for which they are meant and they are within the economy.’’
He said he was optimistic having seen the benefits of the TSA
policy to the Federal Government, states governments would key into it.
Idris said that any insinuations that the policy would lead to laying
off of staff by deposit money banks was unfounded as the policy was not
intended to disrupt the operations of those banks.
He, therefore, advised commercial banks to re-strategise on how
to make profit without relying on government funds. “I think banks need
to really focus themselves and re-direct themselves to face traditional
banking business and not rely heavily on public resources.
“They should be more strategic and focused and I believe that
they will be better for it.’’ NAN reports that the TSA policy was
introduced in Sept. 2015 to ensure that government resources are
centralised in a single account.
It was introduced to block leakages in the system to ensure
transparency and efficiency in the management of government resources.
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