President Muhammadu Buhari has given new orders on COVID-19 donations to Nigeria by philanthropists, organizations and worldwide associations.
Executive Information and Press, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Henshaw Ogubike, made this known in an announcement in Abuja on Tuesday.
In the announcement, the president was said to have endorsed the opening of five COVID-19 Donor Accounts which structure some portion of the current Treasury Single Account course of action in five business banks.
Ogubike revealed that the endorsed banks were Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, UBA, and First Bank.
He clarified that the system secured every single open store dispensed and devoted to the battle against COVID-19 including the Fiscal Stimulus Package just as all gifts by corporate bodies and people to the Federal Government towards the battle against COVID-19 and the relief of its social and monetary impacts on residents.
He said the order likewise included donations under the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) Fund domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Nigeria Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), as of April 23, acknowledged about N27,160 billion, read more news here.
As indicated by him, Federal Government perceives residents desire that these assets be judiciously applied towards the battle against COVID-19.
“In accordance with citizens expectations, the government is committed to managing these funds with the highest sense of transparency and integrity.
“This framework is therefore designed to articulate the measures put in place by government for the transparent and accountable management of COVID-19 Donor Funds as an expression of its commitment towards bridging the trust gap.
“The TSA Sub Account in commercial banks are to be used for the purposes of receiving COVID-19 donations only. On no account shall any other fund of Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies be deposited into the accounts or any other account in commercial banks.
“All other government accounts are to be maintained at the CBN in line with the Presidential directive on TSA, the TSA Guidelines, and related extant Circulars.
“And all accounts with commercial banks are to be linked with the TSA at CBN to provide a single consolidated view of aggregate government cash balances.
“This will provide a single-window for real-time access to details of receipts and payments across all commercial bank accounts. In the absence of a ready tool to accomplish this requirement, the current CBN Payment gateway may be deployed,” he explained.
The executive expressed that all assortments into the business financial balances were to be cleared into Federal Government’s Sub-Recurrent Account with the CBN and inability to clear all adjusts within 24 hours ought to be esteemed an infringement of the Presidential order on TSA and would pull in sanctions. # COVID-19 Donations.
He further said that the payment of all COVID-19 Fund including those being gathered legitimately by CBN and those domiciled with business banks will be through appointment.
As indicated by him, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning may liaise with the National Assembly for crisis entry of a beneficial financial plan for the use of COVID-19 gift dependent on evaluated absolute assortment for the year, read more news here.
“Funds are to be appropriated directly to participating MDA and spending units like Ministry of Health, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, among others rather than to an intermediary agency like the Presidential Task Force.
“Administrative cost of the PTF shall be appropriated separately to the PTF Secretariat. The advantage is that the respective spending units and their Accounting Officers take full responsibility for funds appropriated to them and likely bottlenecks at the PTF are eliminated.
“Furthermore, transparency is enhanced when funds are spread to more MDA than when a huge amount is put under the control of a single entity.
“Given that there is a national emergency to which everyone including National Assembly is invested in addressing, there is no doubt that legislature will be willing to fast track its passage.
“This will bind all spending units to the Appropriation Act and, in fact, provide the greatest measure of credibility and transparency to the management of the donation.
“To ensure equity and transparency in fund allocation, the Minister of Finance may work with the PTF to determine the needs of participating MDA such as Health, Humanitarian Affairs, NCDC among others.
“Affected MDAs shall present details of their needs together with estimated cost. This will form the basis for allocation of funds and enables post expenditure reporting and audit. Funds are to be transferred to TSA Sub Accounts of spending units based on approved allocations,” he added.
