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NIGERIA: Lagos State Governor Fashola Laments 2015 Budget Challenges, Accuses FG Of Sabotage
http://www.africaeagle.com/2014/11/nigeria-lagos-state-governor-fashola_25.html
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday pointed out the diverse challenges facing the state’s 2015 budget put at N489.690 billion, thus blaming the state’s fiscal constraints on lack of transparency by the federal government and its oil agencies.
However, the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, drew Fashola’s attention to the scale of poverty in the state, noting that many residents “still live in abject poverty” despite what Fashola’s administration has achieved in seven years.
Fashola lamented the state’s diverse fiscal constraints, while presenting the 2015 budget estimates to the state legislature and other critical stakeholders yesterday at the assembly complex, Alausa.
Fashola, who addressed a wide range of audience from public institutions, corporate entities, civil society and informal sector among others, said the capital expenditure “is 51 per cent, while the recurrent expenditure is pegged at 49 percent.”
He, therefore, reeled out the breakdown of the budget, noting that economic affairs “has the highest allocation of N146.305 billion; general service, N107.69 billion; housing and community amenities, N49.033 billion; education, N82.14 billion; health, N44.619 billion and environmental protection, N34.953 billion.
He put public safety and order at N15.547 billion; recreation, culture and religion at N3.118 billion; social protection at N1.589 billion, planning reserve at N2.26 billion and contingency at N2.448 billion.
He, therefore, said the state government “has retained essentially the same budget size as 2014. This is for many reasons. One reason is that we have kept a zero deficit in order to ensure that the next government does not inherit a deficit.”
But the governor pointed out diverse challenges, which he said, might affect the budget implementation to the stakeholders including market women, traditional rulers, artisans and tradesmen that attended the budget presentation.
He said the state’s resources “have been severely and adversely affected by the lack of transparency of the federal government and her agencies in the management of the nation’s oil proceeds.”
Aside, the governor lamented the federal government’s indebtedness to the state government arising from the unpaid pension obligations of the apex government and what the state government spent to rehabilitate federal roads in the state.
He said the federal government “is still owing the Lagos State Government N51billion certified and unpaid, out of N59 billion expended on federal government roads in Lagos. It is also owing pension obligations of N673 million, which had not been paid.”
He cited the historic decline in the monthly receipts from Federation Allocation Account Committee, which he said, had fallen below the usually conservative expectations for the first time in seven years.
Also, the governor pointed out the reduced patronage of the tourism and entertainment facilities across the state, which he said, had occurred in the aftermath of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak.
He, therefore, noted that the EVD outbreak had translated “to reduced consumption and consequently reduced incomes in the consumption tax sub-head of our internally generated revenue.”
He added that the federal government had reviewed pensioners’ entitlements upwards by 142 per cent without a corresponding 142 per cent upward review of states’ revenues.
He said the federal government, which receives 52 per cent of national revenues and leaves the 36 states and 774 local governments to share 26 per cent and 20 per cent of national revenues respectively, “has no legal basis to impose financial obligations on the federating units.”
But he said the state government’s compassion for the plight of these pensioners “has weighed more heavily on our minds, than the legal misfeasance of the federal government. Our government has therefore committed to pay and now budgets for the 142 per cent arrears, in addition to 12 per cent and six per cent recent reviews.
“This is the least that we think these public servants deserve. The reason most of Nigeria is running on generators or in darkness is the failure to implement budgets effectively at the federal level by the party in power at that level,” the governor explained.
However, the speaker drew Fashola’s attention to the scale of poverty in the state, thereby urging the governor to use the budget to reduce the rate of abject poverty at the grassroots.
According to him, as the head of an institution that is closest to the grassroots; I must confess, some of our people still live in abject poverty. In treating this budget, we will not forget that we are trustees for the people.
He, therefore, observed that a lot “has been done in the area of job creation and economic empowerment of Lagos residents, but there is a dire need to create more opportunities for our people; more jobs will lead to greater economic growth.
“We are highly expectant that this budget proposal will address some important issues like the completion of ongoing projects, debt reduction, affordable housing, pension allowance, quality infrastructure, healthcare that is good enough to eliminate infant mortality, transportation, gender empowerment and sustainable alternative energy.”
Source: This Day
However, the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, drew Fashola’s attention to the scale of poverty in the state, noting that many residents “still live in abject poverty” despite what Fashola’s administration has achieved in seven years.
Fashola lamented the state’s diverse fiscal constraints, while presenting the 2015 budget estimates to the state legislature and other critical stakeholders yesterday at the assembly complex, Alausa.
Fashola, who addressed a wide range of audience from public institutions, corporate entities, civil society and informal sector among others, said the capital expenditure “is 51 per cent, while the recurrent expenditure is pegged at 49 percent.”
He, therefore, reeled out the breakdown of the budget, noting that economic affairs “has the highest allocation of N146.305 billion; general service, N107.69 billion; housing and community amenities, N49.033 billion; education, N82.14 billion; health, N44.619 billion and environmental protection, N34.953 billion.
He put public safety and order at N15.547 billion; recreation, culture and religion at N3.118 billion; social protection at N1.589 billion, planning reserve at N2.26 billion and contingency at N2.448 billion.
He, therefore, said the state government “has retained essentially the same budget size as 2014. This is for many reasons. One reason is that we have kept a zero deficit in order to ensure that the next government does not inherit a deficit.”
But the governor pointed out diverse challenges, which he said, might affect the budget implementation to the stakeholders including market women, traditional rulers, artisans and tradesmen that attended the budget presentation.
He said the state’s resources “have been severely and adversely affected by the lack of transparency of the federal government and her agencies in the management of the nation’s oil proceeds.”
Aside, the governor lamented the federal government’s indebtedness to the state government arising from the unpaid pension obligations of the apex government and what the state government spent to rehabilitate federal roads in the state.
He said the federal government “is still owing the Lagos State Government N51billion certified and unpaid, out of N59 billion expended on federal government roads in Lagos. It is also owing pension obligations of N673 million, which had not been paid.”
He cited the historic decline in the monthly receipts from Federation Allocation Account Committee, which he said, had fallen below the usually conservative expectations for the first time in seven years.
Also, the governor pointed out the reduced patronage of the tourism and entertainment facilities across the state, which he said, had occurred in the aftermath of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak.
He, therefore, noted that the EVD outbreak had translated “to reduced consumption and consequently reduced incomes in the consumption tax sub-head of our internally generated revenue.”
He added that the federal government had reviewed pensioners’ entitlements upwards by 142 per cent without a corresponding 142 per cent upward review of states’ revenues.
He said the federal government, which receives 52 per cent of national revenues and leaves the 36 states and 774 local governments to share 26 per cent and 20 per cent of national revenues respectively, “has no legal basis to impose financial obligations on the federating units.”
But he said the state government’s compassion for the plight of these pensioners “has weighed more heavily on our minds, than the legal misfeasance of the federal government. Our government has therefore committed to pay and now budgets for the 142 per cent arrears, in addition to 12 per cent and six per cent recent reviews.
“This is the least that we think these public servants deserve. The reason most of Nigeria is running on generators or in darkness is the failure to implement budgets effectively at the federal level by the party in power at that level,” the governor explained.
However, the speaker drew Fashola’s attention to the scale of poverty in the state, thereby urging the governor to use the budget to reduce the rate of abject poverty at the grassroots.
According to him, as the head of an institution that is closest to the grassroots; I must confess, some of our people still live in abject poverty. In treating this budget, we will not forget that we are trustees for the people.
He, therefore, observed that a lot “has been done in the area of job creation and economic empowerment of Lagos residents, but there is a dire need to create more opportunities for our people; more jobs will lead to greater economic growth.
“We are highly expectant that this budget proposal will address some important issues like the completion of ongoing projects, debt reduction, affordable housing, pension allowance, quality infrastructure, healthcare that is good enough to eliminate infant mortality, transportation, gender empowerment and sustainable alternative energy.”
Source: This Day
