Lagos Assembly Begins 2012 Budget Scrutiny

Lagos State ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on Thursday began the defence of their budget proposals at the Lagos State House of Assembly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Governor Babatunde Fashola on November. 14 presented the 2012 Budget to the lawmakers.

Mr. Sola Ogayemi, Head Secretary of the Legislative Department, said the defence was to justify monies appropriated to the MDAs in the budget.

According to him, the MDAs were expected to give details of how their 2011 budgets were expended.

He said the exercise was to cater for the needs of the citizenry and evaluate the performance of the MDAs in accordance with financial rules and regulations.

“Already, letters have been sent out by secretaries of each overseeing committees to the various ministries, agencies and departments to appear before the budget committee,” Ogayemi said.

He said they were also expected to come with vital documents that would indicate revenue and expenditure, contracts awarded and those in consideration and the budget performance of each ministry, among others.