Ambode reorders N23.9bn from 2015 budget size of N489.6bn

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has written to the Lagos State House of Assembly seeking the lawmakers’ approval to reorder N23.975 billion from N489.690 billion budgeted for the year 2015.

BusinessDay exclusively reported last Friday that Ambode had forwarded a request to Mudashiru Obasa, speaker of the state House of Assembly to reorder the budget to enable him re-prioritise expenditure in the remaining months of the year before his own full budget for 2016.

Ambode inherited the N489.690 billion budget from the administration of Babatunde Fashola, the immediate past governor.

According to the governor’s letter read on the floor of the House, on Tuesday, by Wasiu Bisiriyu, the acting clerk, N23.97 billion would be re-ordered, out of which N18.278 billion would be used for capital projects, while N5.697 billion for recurrent expenditure.

The governor noted that the recurrent expenditure presently stood at 97 percent, while capital expenditure performed as low as 29 percent, saying there was the need to follow the tradition of budget performance of 51 percent for capital expenditure and 49 percent for recurrent.

According to him, the projects that would need attention include construction of pedestrian bridges at Ojodu Berger and Okota, construction of flyover bridges at Ajah Roundabout and Pen Cinema, Agege.

Others are construction of Blue Light Rail project; continuation of the construction of Lekki-Epe Expressway; acquisition of emergency/rescue helicopters and heavy-duty equipment (cranes and forklift) and employment trust fund and wealth creation programmes.

The letter read in part: “It is worthy of note that we are constrained by the fact that there are no new revenue sources for the remaining months of the year, and as a result we would not be in a position to propose a supplementary budget, hence, the recourse to a re-ordering of the Y2015 budget.”

Meanwhile, the House Assembly has set up an eight member ad-hoc committee to look into the proposal. Members of the committee include Rotimi Olowo from Shomolu Constituency I, as chairman. Others are Desmond Elliot, Ibrahim Layode, Saka Fafunmi, Fatai Mojeed, Oluyinka Ogundimu, Kazeem Alimi, and Rasheed Makinde.

Members of the committee are to report back to the House on Tuesday, September 22, 2015.