Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, yesterday, disclosed that the Federal Government has recovered the sum of N1.6 billion from a single account in a commercial bank.

She said the implementation of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, made the recovery possible.

The minister made the disclosure before the Abubakar Damburam-led Committee of the House of Representatives, probing the level of implementation of the TSA policy of the Federal Government. Adeosun further hinted that the recovery was achieved through a consulting firm engaged by the Finance Ministry. She, however, refused to give the identity of the consulting firm.

Chairman of the House Committee, Danburam, had said that N540m was paid to engage consultants for a job that could have been done by federal auditors at no cost to the government.

Adeosun stated that government had achieved close to 100 per cent compliance from the 1678 MDAs so far enrolled into the policy. She added that government was getting value for the money spent on engaging the 17 consulting firms. According to her, the external auditors had also investigated 21 other banks, using specialised softwares to track hidden accounts operated by MDAs. The minister said the consultants also recovered an additional N400 million excess charges from one of the commercial banks into the TSA account. She admitted that there were dollar-denominated accounts like those of foreign missions and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yet to be captured by the TSA. (Vanguard)

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