The Bureau for Public Reforms (BPSR) says it will review the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and other public service reforms currently being implemented in the country.
The Director-General of BPSR, Mr Dasuki Arabi made this known in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja ahead of the 20th anniversary of the bureau.
Arabi spoke on the sideline of a 2-Day workshop on Impact Assessment and Perception Survey of Public Finance and Public Service Reforms.
He said that the review became necessary following complaints by some agencies and of government on lack of access to funds.
“When you look at the TSA, of course, we have succeeded in getting a one pot for all resources of government, but then, ministries departments and agencies of government are complaining because they hardly have access to the funds they have collected, which they need to use to provide services.
“When you look at teaching hospitals, before a surgery is conducted, they are expected to make some payments and once those monies get into TSA, they cannot access it.
“So, that iis why we going to look at this and many other challenges around public finance and money,” he said.
The DG said that the bureau would also take a look at Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with a view to addressing issues raised by university teachers.
He said that it was saddening that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) pulled out of the platform and there was a need to take a critical look at the factors responsible.
Arabi said that the bureau will work with relevant committees on the National Assembly, especially Committee on Public Reforms for a legal framework that will make reforms permanent.
In his remarks, Prof. Olaseni Akintola-Bello, the lead consultant for the review said that the areas for review was wide but attention would be focused on public finance for now.
According to him, finance is critical to the running of government and service delivery by agencies of government.
“The focus is more on some aspects of finance because we cannot cover all the aspects of reforms, so we focused on budget implementation, because as I said, budget is the life-wire of the government operations.
“And of course, we also wanted to look at budget reform, general public financing generally; that’s a wide area because it includes some seminar reforms like TSA which all consolidated revenues are going into the central bank.
This is in order to make sure that the government can have a very good oversight of its revenue, and plan accordingly; so the chase is very important aspects of the reform.
“Apart from the series, we will also look at Public Procurement Act (PPA) because if you look at the budget cycle, procurement is critical aspects of the budget because you formulate you analyse and you approve, then you have to spend the money,” he said.