TREASURY SINGLE ACCOUNT AND FRAUD PREVENTION IN NIGERIA FEDERAL INLAND REVENUE SERVICE (FIRS)

Abstract

Successive governments in Nigeria have continued to operate multiple accounts for the collection and disbursing of government revenues in flagrant disregard to the provision of the constitution which requires that all government revenues be remitted into a single account. Treasury Single Account (TSA) is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilization of government cash resources. Through it the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time. Consequently, this study examined the Impact of TSA in Nigeria Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as the Case Study. It employed a descriptive design approach, studying 102 senior staff of FIRS. The collected data were analyzed using the mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions with a decision rule of 2.5. It was hereby deduced from this study that TSA is more effective and prudent in Federal Inland Revenues Service than the conventional ways in which Federal Inland Revenues Service generate their revenue into multiple bank accounts. The study also revealed that TSA has failed to block leakages and promote transparency in management of government treasuries.  It recommends amongst others that adequate political support from all arms of government would strengthen the effectiveness of TSA and also training and retraining of personnel will enhance optimization of TSA.