The hallowed chambers of the Lagos State House of Assembly, LSHA, and its gallery was packed full of people on Tuesday, 29 November, 2016.
Members of the public had thronged the LSHA to witness the presentation of the 2017 Appropriation Bill, which to the layman means Budget Proposal. Budget proposals are detailed accounts of expenditure and receipts expected by the government in a fiscal year.
The huge presence of members of the public at the event cannot be underestimated. Members of the public are usually very interested in the annual budget of the state in particular and of the country at large. This is understandable. The budget is not only the detailed explanation of revenue and expenditure of the government in a year, it is also the detailed report of projects and programmes vis a vis infrastructure and social development to be embarked on by the government in a particular year, hence the public interest in the matter.
The Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, to confirm the importance of the occasion, was brisk and direct to the point in his presentation of the budget proposal before the House members. He appropriately tagged it “Budget of Golden Jubilee” in reference to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of Lagos State in 2017.
Ambode presented a total budget of N812.99 billion of which capital expenditure is expected to gulp a whopping N507.82 billion and recurrent expenditure takes N305.28 billion. The fact that capital expenditure picks the lion share of the budget underscores the determination of the Ambode administration’s determination to improve and upgrade infrastructure facilities in the state as well as opening new vistas for the general improvement in the standard of living and welfare of the citizenry.
Before leaving the venue, Ambode urged the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, and other members of the House to expedite action on the budget proposal so that his administration could get to work and deliver the needed dividends of democracy to the good people of the state.
Obasa, in his response, had praised Ambode for his administration’s sterling performance in lifting the standard of living of Lagosians.
On the budget, Obasa assured the governor of the lawmakers’ determination to expedite action on the budget proposal. “It’s our collective determination that the budget is passed on time so that we give our governor the legal instrument to work and put in projects, programmes and measures aimed at improving and enhancing the standard of living and welfare of Lagosians,” the Speaker stated.
However, the Speaker did not fail to add that “while we are all desirous of expediting action on the budget proposal, we will not fail to perform our duty of critical scrutiny and analysis of the budget. Therefore, while assuring Your Excellency and entire Lagosians of the speedy passage of the budget, we will be careful and thorough in scrutinising the budget and we will not be found wanting in performing our oversight duty on the budget.”
With this statement, the House set to work on the budget proposal. The House Committee on Budget and Economic Planning led by an experienced third term lawmaker, Emmanuel Rotimi Olowo from Somolu State Constituency 1, was saddled with the main job of scrutinising the various budget provisions of all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state, which are over 150 in number. It was a huge assignment but the committee members were more than prepared and ready to sacrifice their time and energy to ensure that the budget to be passed has gone through the necessary due process.
Apart from the Budget and Economic Planning Committee members, chairmen and members of other standing committees of the House also set aside all other official and personal engagements to ensure that the Budget of Golden Jubilee is properly worked on.
Before encountering the Budget and Economic Planning Committee, MDAs must first pass through the committee which oversees them. Suffice to add that getting the approval of their overseeing committees does not mean that the MDAs have been given clean bill of health because they still have to pass through the main Budget and Economic Planning Committee.
For the MDAs, it was indeed a hectic and testing time. A commissioner told this writer that he and his team went through hectic questioning for hours before his ministry’s budget provision was approved. “It was no child’s play. These people (lawmakers) were equal to the task and it was obvious that they knew what they were doing. From the sub-committee level to the main Budget and Economic Planning, the determination and commitment of the lawmakers to ensuring due process was never in doubt,” the Commissioner told this writer.
A day before the 2017 budget was passed, Rt. Hon. Obasa and his colleagues suspended their new year holiday and worked for hours to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.
On Tuesday, January 3, 2017, when the Budget of Golden Jubilee was read for the third time, it was not passed as a matter of course. Members still engaged in robust debate on sectoral provisions in the budget with Budget Committee Chairman, Olowo, still having to go through barrage of questions and several observations by his colleagues. One of such debates was whether or not Lagos Television and Radio Lagos should continue to collect grants from the state government when they all have potential to generate and stand on their own. The Budget Committee had recommended that the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, engage an external auditor to audit the accounts of the agencies. The Chairman of the Committee overseeing the agencies, Tunde Braimoh, with his inside knowledge of activities of the agencies, had put up a spirited argument on why the subventions for the agencies should be retained.
Olowo explained that his committee worked on the analysis of revenues generated by the agencies provided in their budget proposals, hence the committee’s decision to recommend the audit to know whether or not the agencies deserved subvention from the state government as from 2018.
Eventually, it was the committee’s recommendation that was adopted by the House. It was indeed a very eye-opening budget scrutinising exercise for the lawmakers and Lagosians will be the ultimate beneficiaries when the state government starts operating the budget.
- Musbau Razak is the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa
