From: Judex Okoro, Calabar
The introduction of Ministerial Treasury Single Account in Cross River State has eliminated idle bank account balances and plugged the traditional leakages, says Mr Asuquo Ekpenyong Jnr, the state’s Commissioner for Finance.
Ekpenyong, who stated this during an interactive session with newsmen in Calabar yesterday, said the treasury management system of all public sector bank has served to shore up revenue and reduce wastages as well as improve accountability and transparency in public finance management. He said the current administration decided to be prudent, by introducing fiscal discipline in the management of state’s meagre financial resources.
He further said: “At the outset of this administration, we implemented the ministerial treasury single account in order to eliminate idle bank account balances and plug the traditional leakages.
“With TSA there is fiscal discipline in the management of state’s meagre financial resources as it is often said within the state’s finance cluster that this tactful management of expenditure makes N1 go the distance of N100.
“The outcome of these policies has also had positive multiplier effects on the welfare of public servants as government always pays its workforce on or before the 25th of every month to ensure that there is food on the table of the common man.
“This may seem elementary to the uninformed but these prompt salary payments are in spite of Cross River receiving the second lowest net statutory allocation from the federation over the last two years and in some months receiving a zero net statutory allocation,” he said.
Dismissed insinuations that TSA policy slows down projects implementation and brings untold hardship untold hardship as cash flow is not allowed, he maintained that the system allows for better project implementation and cash flow management as the treasury is always aware of its cash position.
On why the administration of Governor Ben Ayade embarked on massive infrastructure development, the commissioner explained that there was an obvious gap between the state’s development and key infrastructure projects
It was on this note, he said, the administration is leveraging on the Public Private Partnership model to actualise its deep vision, while prudently managing its current financial resources to achieve pre-construction milestones as well as actualizing relatively smaller developmental projects.
