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…Stealing of public funds primitive, says Uniosun Pro-Chancellor

Shina Abubakar, Osogbo

A Professor of Accounting at River State University, Lawyer Obara, has disclosed that the Treasury Single Account (TSA), policy has failed to curb corruption in public sector as envisaged.

Delivering a paper titled, “Treasury Single Account and Economic Development in Nigeria: The Ethical Accounting Question” at the 3rd Candido Da Rocha annual memorial lecture held at the Osogbo campus of Osun State University, he said despite the implementation of the TSA, public servants are still held for stealing billions of naira from public account.

He added that though, TSA policy was aimed at garnishing the needed revenue pool for effective and efficient economic development but poverty among many other factors have hampered the achievement of it objectives, hence, proper legal and ethical framework must be put in place to ensure it workability.

His words; “The issue of fraud and corruption is still high even with TSA implementation thus calling to question the ethical and moral justification for it implementation. Government must put adequate measures towards poverty reduction. TSA cannot be effective where there is high level of poverty.

“There should be strong legislation to back TSA policy with stringent punishment for those who fail to comply to it at all level. Such laws should make it illegal to operate separate accounts by all levels of government aside from the approved accounts for TSA implementation”.