The effect of treasury single account (TSA) policy on Government parastatals cash flow management

ABSTRACT

Treasury Single Account (TSA) came as a quick fix to regulating the level of accountability and transparency in the financial resources of the government of the country. Treasury Single Account (TSA) is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilization of government cash resources. Through this bank account or set of linked bank accounts, the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time. However, this paper theoretically examined Treasury Single Account in Nigeria with a view to providing the way forward for the country. In this paper, we proposed that government should engage in massive public enlightenment about the importance of the policy at all levels. Also, government should adhere to the provisions of Section 162(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) for the maintenance of Federation accounts and avoid using private contractors (SystemSpecs-Remita). Though Section 162(1) has made provisions for maintenance of Federation accounts, the legislature should look inwards and address the operational details. Furthermore, government should overhaul the capacity of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN to cope with challenges. It is quite obvious that a research work of this nature needs the researcher to generate as much data as possible in order to make the study meaningful and comprehensive. To this end, the data was sourced from both primary and secondary sources. Although there are many methods of data analysis but for the purpose of clarity and effective understanding of the result, the researcher analyzed the data by making use of Chi-square statistical tool, raw figure and tables.  A total of one hundred (100) questionnaire were distributed, all eighty (80) out of the one hundred (100) copies distributed were retrieved. In order to ensure adequate implementation of the new TSA policy on government cash flow management in Nigeria, the following recommendation should be considered only trusted and incorruptible officials should be appointed to regulate the activities and the functioning of the policy and also for the success of this policy, government should engage in massive public enlightenment about the importance of the policy at all levels.