 The House of Representatives on Wednesday raised the alarm over the Ramita platform through which the Treasury's single account of the federal government is operated. Through a motion by Jeremiah Umaru, APC, Acuanga, Nassarawa, and Gonwamba, the lower chamber said trillions of Naira had been passed through the Ramita platform and that the funds were unaccounted for due to the proliferation of subaccounts by the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN. The House is worried that if this is not addressed, the country will continue to lose its revenue. Joining us live to discuss this issue is Elvis Isar, legal practitioner. Good evening and welcome to our news, Elvis. Good evening and thank you for having me. Okay, well, a single Treasury account in the first place, is it working? Well, this is the first time that the National Assembly will be raising an issue, I would expect the operation of the Treasury single account. If you take a moment back to 2015, the Senate had raised several issues on the operation of the account, issues relating to the system that has been used for the purpose, the 1% commission charges, and of course, currently we are also hearing about subaccounts that have been created by CBN for the purpose of operating this Treasury single account. Again, in 2018, the House of Representatives also raised an issue on the same issue, again, 2019. So we've had these issues about so many challenges facing the operation of the Central Treasury account. What we haven't had is the political will and the genuine desire to resolve these issues. It is not enough for the National Assembly to always raise alarm over an issue as important as the revenue of the federation, which is actually a constitutional matter, because the constitution envisages that all revenues accruing to the federation will be in the single account from which there must be a budgetary allocation for spending. But over the years, we have seen instances where ministries and agents of government would open up all sorts of accounts and monies have been spent without the requisite appropriation. So this is the right time for National Assembly to do what is necessary. They have the constitutional rights to control the oversight functions on how this Treasury single account has been operated, because as it stands now, the proposal has been defeated. The proposal was to ensure transparency, accountability in public revenue, and prevent multiplicity of accounts that were being operated by various agencies and ministries, departments and parasitists of government. But the challenges we see today is that this is not being met, because there hasn't been proper oversight function by National Assembly. So my position is that it's not enough for us to just raise alarm like they have always done. This is not the first time. But this time around, there should be proper investigation. The proper authorities should be in court of question, so that the members of the public can see as any what's going on with the Treasury single account. Are you placing the blame of these discrepancies or things that are happening with this remittance on the system itself, or are you placing it on the human factor? Well, I don't think the system is never a problem. The problem is those who are charged with the duty of operating the system. Yes, the issues have been raised about the system, and that those issues have, you know, has raised from monopoly. There's this talk that remittance, I mean, system specs, which operates remittance, is monopolizing the system, and they are the ones that can, you know, they are involved in the transactions. People have also raised questions about the 1% commission that is payable on the phones, and all of that. For me, I don't think the system is a problem. I think the human factor, because right now we are seeing subaccounts. Your idea was to have a single account. So when you now have accounts that, you know, oversight functions of national assembly cannot reach, and, you know, we cannot see at a glance, then there's a problem, it's defeated your purpose. So for me, it's always the people, it's not about the system. We always complain about systems in Nigeria, we complain about democracy, we complain about, you know, SYZ. The problem is not the system, the problem is the people who are charged with the duties and responsibility of monitoring the system. And there has to be accountability, and that's where the oversight functions of national assembly come to play. And for me, I blame national assembly because they have the... This is a constitution, if you look at section 80 and 162 of the constitution, this is the third constitutional mandate. The traditional single account is a clear constitutional mandate. And the national assembly has the duty to ensure that that is being followed. So for me, it's really not the system, but the people that are managing the system. Yeah, I was going to ask the rationale behind the subaccounts because the aim seems to be defeated. If there are going to be subaccounts for something that we are applauding, I think it came in the time of Mohamed Buhari as the president of Nigeria. Single Treasury account, everybody was saying it was a good thing and all that. But from the experience we've had, whether it is the human factor or the system itself, wherever the problem is coming from that is making people to complain the way they're complaining right now, do you think a single Treasury account will really work in Nigeria? Transparency aside, because we can have more than one and still be transparent if we want to be. So, but do you think a single Treasury account will be the answer to the problems of our loose money being thrown about anywhere and being taken by people who should not? Well, it has worked, you know, I mean, it's not in Nigeria where we are operating the single Treasury account. It has worked in so many countries of the world. And so if it is not working here, then something must be wrong. So it's really not the single Treasury account as an idea that is a problem. It is how we operate it in Nigeria as a problem. It is sad that most, you know, viable principles that are brought from other parts of the world that have worked, you know, lifted countries out of poverty, you know, out of the world. When they get to Nigeria, they don't work. So that tells you that it's not really the idea itself. It's the way or manner it is operated. So the single Treasury account can work, but that is if the CBI really wants it to work. There are even complaints that, you know, the funds that come through the single Treasury account through the commercial banks, money deposit banks. There are complaints that they don't even get to the CBI until a long time thereafter. The idea was to ensure that these funds, you know, the moment they are transferred to the system, they get to the CBI immediately. But we are hearing now that, you know, some banks, you know, delay in remitting these funds to the CBI. In fact, in 2019, the Senate had, I think it was the Senate or the House of Representatives had invited the Marine Director of Facebook, you know, to come and explain, you know, some of these delays. So, you know, I will maintain my position that the problem is not really the system, but the problem is the fact that we don't want, you see, at any point in time in this country where we try to come up with a system that will show transparency and accountability, we always, you know, find ways to defeat it. And that's what is happening right now. The right to cast within the system. Those who are beneficiaries of an opaque system, a system that is not open to scrutiny, they are at work again, you know, trying to score to the traditional account system. So, for me, it's really all part of the corruption that we have in Nigeria until we are really serious about dealing with the issue of corruption. We might not be able to, you know, no system will work. You know, I mean, the TSA as it is called is really not a problem. It's really just the fact that we are not ready to get anything to work, because the rest of us in the system, those who depend on the corrupt system will never allow it to work. That's where we are. And we need the political will. We need national assembly to just, you know, do what we're talking in order to fix it. All right. Thank you very much, El. This will come in on our news today and giving us your thoughts. Thank you for having me. It was a great deal. We've been talking with Elviz Asya, a legal practitioner, and we're talking about a single treasury account. Hello. Hope you enjoyed the news. 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