The Governor of Plateau State Simon Lalong on Friday disclosed that the state government had recovered N2.7 billion through the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) in the state.
Lalong made this known at the All Progressives Congress (APC) media roundtable in Abuja.
According to him, the money, which had hitherto been missing, was traced to some accounts in the state and have been recovered.
He said that the recovery had enabled him to pay workers in the state, who had been on strike for months, at a time.
“Recently, we recovered about N2.7 billion in the state, money that was regarded as lost. We traced and recovered the money which was meant for teachers.
“Teachers, civil servants, the judiciary had gone on several months of strike; some nine, some 11 but now, since I came on board, we did our best. We now have arrears of salaries of only two months.
“For teachers, we paid all; they are back to work. The judiciary is also back to work. So, for the plateau, we are moving on well.
“In the area of corruption, we are putting pressure on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to hasten their investigations so that they can begin prosecution and we can also gain recovery of looted funds,’’ Lalong said.
The governor said that he was unsure why other governors were finding it difficult to implement the TSA, disclosing that the merits of the system outweighed its demerits.
“I am not an accountant but immediately I became aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of TSA, I gave the instruction that it should be implemented.
“We are now tracing some accounts that were not known to us before and we are seeing some excesses in those accounts, especially in some of the ministries. So, I will advise other states that have not yet implemented TSA to do so,” he said.
