Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Economicdevelopment in Nigeria: Accounting & Ethical Issues

Abstract

Economic development indicators with regard to Nigeria as a nation have not been favourable as development indicators of Nigeria in recent times and over the years has shown. The situation perhaps necessitated the adoption and implementation of TSA policy by the government. Over the years, government has come up with different efforts and policies that could be used towards driving the economy towards the paths of development. One of such policy thrust is the issue of Single Treasury Account (TSA) and how it affects economic development. TSA is an economic policy that ensures and aggregates all revenues and income of government into a single source called treasury and it is controlled by the central bank (CBN) of Nigeria. With its implementation has risen a lot issues which includes ethical as well as accounting issues. This paper succinctly discusses the TSA Policy and its impacts on economic development with a focus on ethical and accounting issues that have arisen in the face of TSA implementation. The paper adopts Meta- analysis methodology. Several theories for the implementation of TSA were reviewed as theoretical framework. Past literature reviewed showed a gap as they left out ethical and accounting issues thus making room for this study. Trends of government revenue for the period of 2010 to 2019 were analysed. Pre TSA and Post TSA period analysis was conducted and findings discussed. The paper discovered via its trend analysis that total government revenue within the Post TSA implementation seems to flatten out when compared to Pre TSA period indicating that even with TSA implementation there is minimal government revenue generation witnessed, hence the need for a review of the policy to overturn the trend. Issues of record management, accounting skills gap as well as accounting infrastructure needed for real time TSA activities are some of the accounting issues. Issues of trust and perception, fraud and corruption in the wake of TSA policy, fall in Naira as well as borrowing implications are some of the ethical issues. All of these have hampers the expected progress of TSA policy towards economic development. The study concludes that whilst TSA policy is a laudable project, these issues must be dealt with other wise, economic development in the face of TSA policy will continue to suffer. The study recommended among others that there should be ethical revolution. All MDAs involved in the use of TSA must be ethical in its implementation and management of accounts. Ethical index can be developed whereby MDAs can be rated according to those that uphold the highest standard of ethics towards TSA policy. There is should training of the accounting manpower at all levels of TSA implementations. Manpower must be familiar with and be ICT compliant to deal with real time TSA transactions. Government must put adequate measures towards poverty reduction. TSA policy cannot not be effective where there is high level of poverty.