1st August, 2012
Lagos assemblymen have adopted as a resolution of the House, the report of the five-day workshop on budget and finance for members and staff, which proposed a more critical monitoring of the revenue profile of states by the state legislatures.
The lawmakers and staff, who held the workshop in Akwa Ibom State, had come up with a communiqué, which read that “the House Committee on Finance should regularly monitor the revenue profile of the state and support efforts at amending the constitution to ensure total financial autonomy of State legislatures.”
In this regard the state House of Assembly has requested ministries, department, and agencies within the state to furnish the House Committees with the progress reports on the implementation of their budget on quarterly basis.
The communiqué also directed the executive arm of the state government to expedite action on the introduction of Treasury Single Account (TSA) in order to curtail proliferation of accounts by the MDAs.
The communiqué further urged the Assembly to devise a means of assisting or supporting the office of the state Auditor-General to follow up the House resolution on audited reports, on which the standing Committee of the House should extend the scope of their oversight functions on.
Reading the communiqué at plenary, the House Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, told the acting Clerk of the House, Segun Abiru, to ensure that the communiqué is immediately forwarded to all concerned ministries, departments and agencies for proper implementation.
Meanwhile, the House has lifted the suspension on the state Joint Allocation Account Committee (JAAC) on the release of funds to the local councils in the State.
Adeyemi Ikuforiji also directed government functionaries and agencies involved in the investigation to forward necessary documents in time.
The House had in the course of investigation into the disbursement of funds to local Governments in the state directed the Commissioner for Finance to suspend disbursement of funds to the councils other than salaries for pensionable and non-pensionable staff, pending the outcome of the an investigation by a Committee headed by the House Leader, Dr, Ajibayo Adeyeye.
—Eromosele Ebhomele