Featues@ITRealms:
The controversies of Treasury Single Account (TSA)
have ranged for weeks now with the Senate submitting that its contract with
Remita, a locally but globally acknowledged software solution by SystemSpecs be
terminated. REMMY NWEKE writes that National Assembly must go beyond lip-service
on issues of local content for it to earn a boost.
Excerpts:
Preamble:
Pen-ultimate week,
the Nigerian Senate also known as Red Chambers took a decision directing the Federal
Ministry of Finance (FMF) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend further
payments into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Top on the grouse of
the Senate showed that lots of education is needed when it comes to dealing
with certain sectors of the economy backed up with adequate or baseline
research; one of such sectors is the Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT).
ITRealms reports that
consequent upon a motion sponsored by Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) and
co-sponsored by some 35 others, the Senate called for investigation into what
it described as an abuse and mismanagement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA)
for the simple fact that a company purportedly the agent for the electronic
collection (e-Collection), which in this case happens to be Remita made a colossal
N25 billion daily from the transaction, thus Senate enjoined Ministry of
Finance and CBN to suspend further payments into the TSA.
Also, the Senate said
that the appointment of Remita as e-collection agent was a gross violation of
Section 162 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and the Banks and Other Financial
Institutions Act 2007 (BOFIA). Labeling the 1 per cent charge by Remita as an
attempt to rip Nigerians of task payer’s moneys, and alleged that the company
realised over N25 billion in one day as one per cent of monies transferred.
What is Remita and deliverables?
Remita, developed by
SystemSpecs Limited and voted severally as Nigeria's Software of the Year, is
indeed a success story and a pride to Africa.
Senate investigates TSA:
ITRealms equally
reports that the Upper Chamber in the motion led by Senator Dino Melaye, pointed
out that in pursuance of the TSA, the Federal Government had on September 15,
2015, directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to close their
various accounts with commercial banks and pay all revenues into its account
with the CBN under the TSA policy, which culminated in the mopping up of some N2.5
trillion through its e-collection agent, Remita with a Cost of Transaction charged
at 1 per cent, which amounted to N25 billion.
The Senators equally
said by the policy directive, all revenue generating agencies of the Federal
Government such as the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among others;
are to pay all revenues collected for and on behalf of the Federal Government
into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Aside calling for the
immediate return of all monies that had accrued to the e-collection agent,
lawmakers called for immediate prosecution of all directors of REMITA in
accordance with the BOFIA. Thus it mandated the Committees of Finance, Banking
and Other Financial Institutions and Public Account to carry out a holistic
investigation on the matter and report back within four weeks.
Novice about TSA:
Senate Leader,
Senator Ali Ndume (APC Borno South) expressed surprise that a company could
have been paid that much just to transfer money to the CBN, stressing that no
matter the platform used, the amount was too much and as such must be
investigated. He invited his colleagues to be serious about this TSA matter. “…
I hope that after investigation, if it is true that somebody is involved in
this then he is a sabotage trying to do things like it was done in the past.”
Senator Bassey Akpan (PDP
Akwa Ibom North East) wondered why such amount would go to private pockets when
there is total collapse of road network and other infrastructure in the
country.
For Senator Enyinanya
Abaraibe (PDP Abia South), he alleged that over N60 billion was realised by the
company, urging senators to go beyond party lines to handle such issues
bordering on corruption and ripping off the commonwealth of Nigerians. “Somebody
made this decision and we must ask; who gave this order; who is that person in
this country that is so powerful to direct MDAs to pay money into a private
account? We should not cover anybody in this investigation no matter how highly
placed. We are hearing that the money has gone up to N60 billion; one company
is taking N60 billion of our money?”
Deputy Senate Leader,
Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC Kebbi South), stressed that no more should the nation
allow any company to hide under the role of consultancy to charge outrageously
for services rendered.
Out of the over 19
senators that contributed to the motion, several urged the senate not to
conclude yet until the committee was done with its investigations.
In the midst of the
debates and alarm raised by the revelation, Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi
Central) urged the Senate not to act on rumours but carry out proper
investigations before taking definite position on the matter.
NCS,
ITSSP reject Senate report on TSA-Remita
The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has
rejected the recent report of the Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Banking,
Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts on the abuse and
mismanagement of Treasury Single Account Regime (TSA), reports ITRealms.
NCS, an umbrella body of industry interest
groups within the Information Technology (IT) computing professionals, made
this rejection through its Information Technology Systems and Security
Professionals (ITSSP), arguing that calling for the termination of the Remita
contract at this time amounts to stoppage of TSA operation.
According to Rogba Adeoye, the chairperson of
ITSSP their rejection of Senate position was based on the fact that despite NCS
being an observer in the public hearing and indeed they submitted memorandum
after the public hearing as demanded by the Committee.
Termination of TSA contract will
kill local content:
While
dust settles on the declaration of Senate on TSA and Remita, software
practitioners in the country have floored the Upper Chamber over the
recommendation for the termination of Treasury Single Account (TSA) contract,
arguing, it will kill local efforts and capacity.
According
to them, the Senate position will disrupt the TSA operation, undermine the
anti-corruption stance of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, and
create depression in the local Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry
and literally kill local content initiative of the Federal Government.
For
the president of the Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON) Chief
Pius Okigbo, Jr, the call for termination of TSA contract will not in any way
promote or encourage local competence, pointing out that Systemspecs, the
owners and developers of Remita, did not do any wrong.
“I
do not see the reason why the government will terminate the contract. Software
industry represents a sector of immense opportunity, massive employment
potential, an industry endowed with creativity and technological innovation,
wealth creation, talent development and much more,” Okigbo said, and called on
CBN and Federal Government to ignore such a heinous call capable of diminishing
and putting local contents in the morgue for a long time to come.
Software development, Nigeria’s next
hope after oil:
The
Senate position also irked some other professionals who spoke at the ISPON
President’s Dinner 2016, including the Acting Director-General, National
Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji and the
immediate president of ISPON and chairman of Connect Technologies, Chief Chris
Uwaje, who decried such a call, especially coming from the Senate.
Olatunji,
in his remarks to the occasion, expressed the belief that indigenous software
development is the good choice for Nigeria to earn foreign exchange at this
time, noting that consistent partnerships is required to cement relationships
between the government and the private sector
Corroborating
this, Uwaje said, oil and gas sector has failed to deliver the required value
to develop the nation in the last 50 years, and so challenged the government to
resort to indigenous knowledge and with software there is hope for the economy,
emphsising that “If we must recover lost grounds of our national development
and surmount the challenges of the emerging information society, then
indigenous software is the reliable answer and ultimate solution.”
We remain committed to national
transformation - Systemspecs:
In a formal response to ITRealms on the
recent purported Senate Report in respect of Remita-TSA project, the managing
director, SystemSpecs, owners of Remita platform, Mr. John Obaro reiterated his
company commitment to indigenous technology for national transformation.
His office he told ITRealms, has been
inundated with enormous goodwill messages from home and abroad in respect of
our successful record in the indigenous software development space over the
past 24 years and especially as it relates to our involvement in the FGN TSA project since 2011. Conversely, he said, they have also had
to contend with a barrage of questions on the nature of SystemSpecs involvement
with the FGN TSA project and the associated commercial
terms, arising from the Senate enquiry.
Obaro said it was fulfilling to note that the
Senate report did not accuse Remita of under-delivering on the substance of the
contract and that their efforts are recognised as having played a significant
role in the life of the nation when it mattered and that the disagreement has
only been on the commercial terms of our contract, hence, the Senate Committee
further recommended that SystemSpecs' efforts should be rewarded – albeit on a scale
which is quite debatable.
SystemSpecs
has records of ethical standards:
He pointed out that since inception of
SystemSpecs some 24 years ago, it has chosen to be guided by sound ethical
principles and walked away from many transactions believed could challenge the
standards the firm set for itself. Thus, SystemSpecs is a testimonial of the
numerous multi-nationals, indigenous public and private sector organisations
and individuals they have been privileged to work with over the years.
Although he said, on the FGN TSA
project many people did not give a chance of success, by the way, but they have
been careful to respect the terms of contracts and many times gone beyond the
call of duty to ensure the immediate and long-term success of the initiative. “We
are glad and proud that we have delivered,” he declared.
For emphasis, he said, SystemSpecs wishes to
state that the TSA project goes beyond revenue
collections and extends to payments, accounting information exchange and
update, full real-time integration with GIFMIS, integration with the national
financial services ecosystem enabling payers across multiple platforms, 24/7
user support for 50,000 FGN TSA users of Remita platform,
among others.
He also noted that while many things seem to
have been muddled up in the public domain for different reasons; e-collections
schemes anywhere in the world are a product of negotiations based on scope and
complexity of tasks involved.
“The subsisting 1 per cent charge eventually
agreed by the CBN, banks and ourselves at the commencement of the project was
considered a good starting point which could be reviewed based on emerging
realities. This much is a clear and integral part of our contracts with the
CBN,” Obaro explained.
He emphasized the resounding success of the TSA project has obviously attracted attention from different
quarters which may include those benefitting from the old pre-TSA
order, competitors who lost out in the selection process, un-informed or under-informed
commentators, among others. But in all, Obaro said, they have always been and
will remain fully committed to the full resolution of any issue surrounding the
commercial component of our contract in the overall larger national interest.
He somewhat expressed excitement to the Senate
for its avowed commitment to preserve the national interest, the government for
entrusting such a significant national IT project to an indigenous firm, and
numerous Nigerians who continue to objectively analyse issues and encourage his
team particularly during these times.
CACOL blames Saraki’s Senate of undermining Buhari's
anti-corruption war:
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL),
has accused Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of undermining the efforts of
President Muhammadu Buhari over the anti-corruption crusade, following the
Senate pronouncement to terminate the TSA-Remita project.
CACOL in a letter endorsed by its Executive
Chairman, Debo Adeniran to the Senate President, and made available to ITRealms, said the Nigerian Senate, under Saraki’s leadership is working
at cross-purposes with its own campaign for the adoption of Made-in-Nigeria
products by canvassing for the acquisition of foreign revenue aggregation
software to replace an existing one created by a Nigerian in Nigeria.
CACOL also accused Saraki of manipulating the
Senate to frustrate the Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime currently being
implemented via Remita, electronic payment platform developed by SystemSpecs
Limited.
The letter dated March 2, 2016, alleged that the
Senate under Saraki is playing double standards, especially given that in one
breath, the Senate Report “severally insinuates that there is no valid contract
between SystemSpecs, the company that provided the Remita TSA collection
platform and the CBN and in another breath, recommends that the contract should
be immediately terminated.”
“Our investigations however reveal that the CBN
and the OAGF independently issued at least five circulars/letters at different
times where Remita is specifically mentioned. Can institutions as big and
structured as the CBN and OAGF do this without any contract between it and a
vendor,” queried CACOL.
The group went on to label the Senate’s recommendation
for termination of the contract as “provocative, retrogressive, insensitive and
suspicious.”
Remita
education for Nigerian Senate:
From the foregoing, it is very clear that the
Senators did not just miss the point of engagement between CBN and SystemSpecs
for Remita and module of execution, which ab nitio, was that every transaction
attracts 1 per cent of total sum and at no time was the mopping up expected.
So, if the mop up came, it can only happen
once and for the fact that the 1 per cent kind of cost of transaction amounted
to over N2.5billion is a normal rule of engagement, which everyone or better
still, industry observers expected the Senators to have known in consultancy
and contract engagements. As some of them were political contractors before
joining the Senate.
It is obvious that the Senators also did not
do their homework very well before exposing their ignorance on the subject
matter. Imagine, if Remita was to a foreign software vendor whether such orders
and accusations will ever come up to the extent of asking SystemSpecs,
developers of Remita to refund money legitimately paid to them for use of their
platform.
In all, it is evident that there is need for an Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) education for the National Assembly, especially
the Senate, more so as far as Remita is concerned.
Equally, there is need to ensure that Senators mostly those at the
Legislative arm of the Federal Government do not constitute themselves a shame
at this 21st century, because, after all, they have Internet at
their disposal for self-education on modules of contract in the ICT sector and
Remita specifically.
In addition to ensuring that their Special Assistants (SAs) should
be knowledgeable enough in research methodologies, in order to prepare them
sufficiently, before another embarrassing showcase like exhibited in the Remita
imbroglio.
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!
