By OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO
LAGOS—Governor BabatundeFashola of Lagos State yesterday signed the 2013 appropriation bill of N499.105 billion into law, just as he charged Ministries,Departments and Agencies, MDAs, to strengthen their Internal Generated Revenue, IGR strategies.
The budget figure which showed an increase of N1.828 billion from the amount presented by Fashola to the State House of Assembly on October 31th, 2012.
It will be recalled that the governor presented a budget proposal of N497.277 billion to the State House of Assembly for the 2013 fiscal year.
Fashola who gave his assent to the budget tagged ‘`Budget of Poverty Eradication and Economic Growth, ” at the State House, Alausa, Ikeja, added that the budget could only be achieved when the state government earns the required revenue within the fiscal year.
According to him, “It is not how quickly the budget is passed or assented to that matters, but what is important to this administration is how rigorously the budget is implemented for the development of the state, especially to improve the standard of living of residents of Lagos state.”
“And all these cannot be achieved without the energy and commitment of the men and women in the State Civil Service. So it is time for the civil servants to lace up their shoes and set for work.”
Fashola emphasised that the budget would commence operation immediately after the New Year holiday.
The governor, however, commended the state House of Assembly for their prompt response, saying “It is fair to acknowledge that the Lagos State House of Assembly havegiven the executive a good head start so that in a matterof few hours, the budget willbe in operation.”
Speaking earlier, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said “the 2013 budget has a slight increase of 1.5 per cent fromthe 2012 budget.”
According to Akabueze, “in the 2013 budget, 46 per centof the budget is allocated for recurrent expenditure while 54 is allocated for capital expenditure for 2013.”
On the reason why the budget was approved beforethe commencement of the 2013 fiscal year, he noted that this was due to the cooperation between the legislature and the executive.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the House Committee on appropriation, Mr. MudashiruObasa, said that the House increased the 2013 budget by N1.828 billion to cater for the needs of the lawmakers and the MDAs.
Obasa explained “During the 2013 budget defence, the house discovered that the cut in the overhead cost of the MDAs in 2012 affected them in generating revenue for the state. While some MDAs performed excellently, others performance were below par.”
The lawmaker however charged the MDAs to intensify their strategy towards generating revenue for the state.

A state with 20 million people and so much responsibilities passing $3 billion budget when they should be passing nothing less than $20 billion..

This is just sad.

Meanwhile Bayelsa is passing a $2.5 billion budget - not counting millions more through NDDC, amnesty, and the other pilfering by GEJ - all for less than 3 million people.

Yet it is in Lagos that the big achievements in governance are happening.

Eko Ile: A state with 20 million people and so much responsibilities passing $3 billion budget when they should be passing nothing less than $20 billion..

This is just sad.

koruji: Meanwhile Bayelsa is passing a $2.5 billion budget - not counting millions more through NDDC, amnesty, and the other pilfering by GEJ - all for less than 3 million people.

Yet it is in Lagos that the big achievements in governance is happening.

You can not buy good vision, quality and credible leadership with money. Their governors from Alams to GEJ and the new joker are all semi illiterates with narrow world view.

Alams is an ex convict/Fugitive

GEJ the deputy governor under Alams is a born dullard who either looked the other way while Alams was looting the state or was part of the looting. They left the state dry and more backward and in despair.

Bayelsa is 6 x richer than Lagos, but Lagos is 50 years ahead of that shittthole.

Scarce funds for plentiful problems.
Fashola God will be there for you

See
all these Asiwaju Criminals of Nigeria asss lickers - Eko Ile, Ƙoruji,
Seanet01 etc rush here to play down on 13yrs of profligacy and
corruption in Lagos State.

500b budget for Lagos is big if Fashola can tackle the high level level corruption and profligacy.