Lagos Assembly approves N491.827 budget for 2012
By Olasunkonmi Akoni, Gbenga Akanmu
The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed the 2012 Appropriation bill just within a month and two weeks after the budget was presented to it by the state governor, Babtunde Fashola.The budget, which was originally N485.292 when it got to the House, was however increased by N6billion to arrive at a total of N491.827.
The additional N6billion was at the instance of the governor, for the hosting of the 2012 National Sports Festival and the completion of the projects in Isale Gangan area of the State.
A breakdown of the budget shows the total recurrent expenditure taking N233.506billion while the total capital expenditure is N258.321.In the bubdget, which has been sent to the Governor for his assent, subvention for Public Works Corporation was increased from N3.2billion to N4billion while the overhead cost for the Assembly Service Commission, which was earlier put at N86.4billion, was increased to N96.4billion.
Also, N612.33million and N500million were added to the overhead cost and capital expenditure of the Lagos State House of Assembly such that the overhead and capital are now N6, 123, 831, 000 and N2.769billion respectively.
As a result of the request of the Governor, N5.33 billion was added to the overhead cost for the office of Sports for the hosting of 2012 National Sports Festival.
The House further approved N909, 594, 266 to be deducted from other personnel cost in the Ministry of Establishment and Training and added as personnel for the Primary Health Care board for optimum performance in the health sector.
It also increased the capital expenditure of Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development by N1billion so that the Ministry could effectively concentrate on the development of Isale-Gangan as part of its task for next year.
The House urged the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget to monitor closely the usage of the dedicated revenue domiciled with concerned ministries, departments and agencies.
Addressing his colleagues at the sitting which lasted till 10.30 pm due to the nature of the deliberation, Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji thanked them for sparing their recess in order to speed up the passage of the passage of the budget.
He also thanked them for their painstaking efforts to look critically at the proposal before it was finally passed.
The House thereafter adjourned sitting to 6 February, 2012.
