By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsur Olowoopejo
Lagos State Government, yesterday, disclosed that it recorded 80 percent performance in the fourth quarter of the 2010 budget, a record which was one percent short compared  the third quarter performance.

It will be recalled that the state government   recorded a performance of 81 percent of the total budget of N411. 571 billion in the third quarter, after the signing of the supplementary budget of N22 billion into law by the state Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN.
Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze, disclosed this, yesterday, while fielding questions from newsmen after the quarterly budget review held to mark the fourth quarter of the 2010 budget, at the State House, Alausa, Lagos.

Akabueze said,  “overall performance for the end of the fourth quarter of the 2010 budget, marking the last for the year, ended with an 80 percent performance.

“But you will recall that at the end of the third quarter, the budget performance stood at 81 percent.  However, it is a good performance but we will continue to press further to ensure greater performance in the 2011 budget.”

The Commissioner noted that the performance was below expectation as the Governor had continuously set a 100 percent bench mark for any budget achievement in the state.

He blamed the fall of the fourth quarter of 2010 budget performance on “the dislocation in the market leading to many Lagosians losing their jobs, which further affected the revenue of the state.”

Akabueze however stated that the state government has identified some of the challenges and the affected agencies were mandated to take every effort to address those challenges in terms of project execution.

“They were further charged to go in line with the state government policies focus on completing ongoing project before new project are awarded. That is not to say new ones will not be awarded but the trust will be on completion of the ongoing ones.” He said.

He however, said “The economy has begun to pick up. We are expectant that the 2011 budget which is at the final process of approval by the Lagos State House of Assembly. When it is approve this year we will continue to move forward in terms of performance.”

It will be recalled that Akabueze promised that the third quarter budget performance will be sustained. Saying “All significant lines did well at the end of the third quarter. The revenue expenditures are within limits. We are very satisfied with the performance and we hope to sustain that trend in this last quarter or even improve on it”,

On the Supplementary Budget which was recently approved by the House of Assembly, Akabueze said, “We have a major task on our hands this last quarter in terms of construction work; but we should be able to catch up and we are hopeful that we will finish the year with the performance in the same region or even better”.

The focus of expenditure from the Supplementary Budget, the commissioner said, would be on roads, drainages, channelisation, and completion of some on_going projects like school projects and furniture as well as projects in the Health Sector.