By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos—Lagos State  House of Assembly, through the Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, has uncovered bloated Overhead Estimate in the budget of the 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs over the years to the detriment of the Capital Expenditure in the state.

This came as the House proposed disbursement of  N59 billion  as the overall budget size for the year ending 31st December, 2015 for the 20 Local Government Areas, LGAs and 37 Local Council development Areas, LCDAs, in the state.

This was contained in a report submitted by a Six-Man Adhoc Committee, set up by the house to scrutinize the 2015 Budget estimates of the councils and make recommendations.

The committee which was inaugurated on June 18, 2015, and chaired by Hon Rotimi Abiru, submitted its findings to the House, Wednesday, July 30, 23.

The 7th Legislative Assembly had earlier, mandated its house committee to carry-out the exercise in consonance with Section 3 of the Local Government Council Committee Law, 2007 which states inter alia that: “The Committee shall be responsible for the administration of the affairs of the Local Government in accordance with the provisions of Sections 33, 34 and 40 of the Local Government (Administration) Law, provided that with respect to the preparation of annual estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Local Governments, such shall be laid before the House of Assembly for debate and approval.”

Based on the above law the committee swung into action, but could not conclude the assignment before the dissolution of the House on Monday, June 1, 2015.

The findings of the committee revealed that most LGAs and LCDAs in the state performed poorly in the area of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, hence, their reliance on Federal Allocation.