Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya disclosed on Thursday that the state government has discovered a total of 2, 292 accounts linked to the state government and that N1.48 billion was discovered from 860 of the accounts which were dormant or undisclosed.
He said the exercise on the implementation and enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in the state also captured additional 265 hidden accounts through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The governor stated this while declaring open a one-day workshop for accounting and paying officers of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as chief executives of institutions of higher learning in the state.
“586 dormant accounts were closed after generating their annual account statements for proper reconciliation and documentation. This shows the enormity of the financial indiscipline and opacity inherited by our administration,” Governor Yahaya said while adding that, in order to foster efficient management of resources in the state the administration has approved the Cash Management Strategy (CMS) which is aimed at enhancing budget performance by preventing costly budget overruns that negatively affect the implementation of the state’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
He said that the introduction and enforcement of the TSA was one of the steps taken by the administration to salvage the financial wastefulness in the state. “It is worthy of note that on our coming to office on May 2019, we met the State finances in a delicate situation, characterized by high debt burden, wastefulness and lack of accountability”.
The governor explained that the workshop was designed to bring relevant stakeholders up to speed on the new TSA policy in the state. While urging the participants to be attentive and gain the necessary insights and experience to make the new policy a success, Governor Yahaya said: “The success of the TSA depends on your ability and willingness to buy in to the new policy”.
“There will be no development without the requisite resources to help implement of our development agenda. That is why our administration is focused on mobilizing resources to finance the execution of projects and programs that will impact positively on the lives of our people,” the governor stated.