Reps query Adeosun over N540m TSA consultancy fee
A House of Representatives adhoc panel yesterday queried Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun for approving the sum of N540 million as consultancy fee for the audit of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The panel, which is investigating the status of the TSA headed by Abubakar Nuhu Danburam (APC, Kano), wondered why the minister could approve such “huge amount” for the Accountant General of the Federation (AG), Ahmed Idris, to engage the consultants.
At a meeting in Abuja, members of the panel raised concerns over the way the TSA was being run, saying there were still leakages in the way government finances are collected.
“Why are we wasting money to engage consultants when we have the office of the Auditor General of the Federation? What’s the rationale behind spending N540m on consultancy alone? We’re talking about saving costs of governance, but I think this is simply a waste,” Danburam said.
But in her response, the minister said the auditor general’s office carries out statutory audits of governments accounts, while the consultants engaged audit.
However, Danburam said recovery could only be done when it is established that there was indeed sums of money to be recovered.
But Adeosun said they were certain that government’s monies were trapped in various accounts hence the need for the consultant.
She said so far, one consultant alone recovered the sum of N1.6 billion from a single branch of a bank and that only last month, they discovered arbitrary bank charges of over N600m. were to conduct recovery