Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly on Friday passed the state 2013 budget, increasing the initial estimate brought to the House by Governor Babatunde Fashola from N497.227 to N499, 104,892,585.
As passed by the State House of Assembly, the budget, broken down into N229,729,242,884 for recurrent expenditure and N269,375,649,701 for capital expenditure, now contains an additional N1.878bn and has been sent by the clerk of the House to the governor for assent.
The additional amount, according to the breakdown of the budget, is to shore up the amount to be spent by the House next year.
During the presentation of the report on the Appropriation Bill before it was finally passed by the House, Chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa had informed the House that among its findings, the committee discovered that the collection and supervision of the Land Use Charge, a major source of internally generated revenue for the state, were not allowing for effective coverage and proper accountability.
“The overhead cost allocated to the Lagos State House of Assembly is inadequate for its operations and the capital budget allocated to the Lagos State House of Assembly is grossly inadequate; the overhead cost allocated to the Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission (LAHASCOM) is inadequate for its operations,” he had said.
The report further found the overhead cost to the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) inadequate to achieve its revenue target.
“The overhead cost allocated to the Office of the Auditor-General for Local Governments is inadequate for its optimal performance; the omission by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget of the vote head ‘Dedicated Revenue Account’ for Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) would adversely affect its operational performance,” the report observed.
“The fund allocated to the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) for its subvention is inadequate to meet up with legal fees, civic /voters education and retreat. Monthly subvention allocated to the Michael Otedola College of Education (MOCOPED) is inadequate to cater to its personnel; and the Office of the Lagos State Public Private Partnership (PPP) lacked supervision of its activities.”
To resolve these inadequacies, the report recommended that House admonish the executive arm of government to engage more competent companies in the collection of Land Use Charge to ensure wider coverage, proper accountability and increased revenue base for the state.
It also recommended that the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget should, as a matter of urgency, return the ‘Dedicated Revenue Account’ of LASEPA for its optimum performance.
Also recommended was the addition of the sum of N423,831,914 to the overhead cost of the Lagos State House of Assembly thereby totalling N6,623,831,914 to allow for meaningful performance and the addition of N2,011,790,971.25 to the capital budget of the Lagos State House of Assembly to put the new amount at N2,811,790,971.25 for effective catering for capital projects in 2013.
It also recommended that the sum of N56,400,000 be added to overhead cost of the Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission (LAHASCOM) to make the new amount N96,400,000 in order to allow for meaningful performance and that the sum of N1bn should be added to overhead cost of the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) thereby totalling the sum of N7.748bn to allow for meaningful performance.
“The sum of N18,200,000 should be added to overhead cost of the Office of the Auditor-General for Local Governments thereby totalling the sum of N35,000,000 for optimum performance,” the report also sated, adding that the sum of N100m be added to the subvention of LASIEC so that the budget, which also has provision for legal fees, civic/voters’ education and retreat, would now amount to N272,649,550.
The report recommended the deduction of the sum of N782,015,582 from other personnel cost (contingency) domiciled in the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions thereby remaining a balance of the sum of N1bn, the sum N1,828,000,000 being part of internal loan thereby totalling the sum of N42,365,000,000.
