Lagos 2013 Budget Not Achievable, Says State Assembly

Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have described as unrealistic a major part of the financial projections in the 2013 budget estimate of the state as presented to the House by Governor Babatunde Fashola two weeks ago.

The lawmakers, who deliberated extensively on the budget proposal of N497. 277 billion during plenary yesterday, maintained that the amount pegged by the executive arm to be derived from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) were mere figures which cannot be achieved.

According to the lawmakers, the executive arm had put the IGR at N23 billion, but their concern stems from the fact that while they do not actually know how much is derived as IGR, experience from past budgets, especially that of the 2012, had shown that such IGR projections had never been achieved.

As a result, the executive arm of the government often resorts to applying for re-ordering of the budget deep into the year or even going ahead to borrow in order to finance the budget.

The lawmakers said it was time to guard against this practice of re-ordering which the executive arm was already turning into a norm.

One of the lawmakers and Chairman, House Committee on Works, Rotimi Olowo, told his colleagues that there was a disconnect between what the lawmakers thought and how the executive arm thinks it can achieve the revenue generation to fund the budget.

He described the budget as having a lot of aspirations that would better the state and its residents, but added that, “talking alone cannot provide food.

“We must appreciate the fact that the 2012 budget has not been well financed and we do not even know how much is coming in from IGR. So one can express fear concerning the 2013 budget.”

Corroborating Olowo’s argument, Chairman, House Committee on Transport, Commerce and Industry, Bisi Yusuf, disclosed that in the 2012 budget, the Ministry of Local Government could only generate N1 billion out of the N11 billion projection it had.

He also said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry generated only N19 billion out of the N70 billion projection for 2012.

“If you look at this situation, you would realise that they are only giving us figures that are not realistic,” Yusuf said.

Mrs. Adefunmilayo Tejuosho and Dayo Saka Fafunmi also supported the lawmakers and urged the House committees to thoroughly scrutinise documents presented by ministries, departments and agencies in defence of the budget.

Chairman of the House Committee on Budget, Mudashiru Obasa, said though the government has good plans for the state, he is “not convinced that the revenue for the budget can be managed, but we will discuss this at the Committee level.”

He also lamented the debt profile of the state which the House said was not added in the budget.

Obasa said though the governor had proposed that the budget financing for 2013 was N34.061 billion, the House had discovered that the actual financing requirement was N132.348 billion, arguing that even though the bond requirement would be N34.061 billion as it was claimed in the budget, the state would require an addition of N98.287 billion to offset the debt.

Deputy Speaker Taiwo Kolawole, who presided over the sitting, asked the Committee on Budget to liaise with the state Ministry of Economic Planning to fashion out a repayment plan for the debt owed by the state as well as know how prepared the state is concerning issues raised about the budget.

BY EROMOSELE EBHOMELE