Press Releases

Lagos Records 75 Per Cent Third Quarter Budget Performance
…As Gov. Fashola Charges Nigerians On U-17 World Cup

Oct 9, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Friday took a retrospective look at the performance of the State’s Year 2009 Budget in the first three quarters of the year, revealing that it has so far posted an impressive 70 percent performance.

According to Governor Fashola who spoke in an interview with newsmen after the Third Quarter Budget Review meeting which preceded the Year 2009 Retreat for Executive Council and Permanent Secretaries at the Lagos State Beach and Resort Centre, Akodo, the Budget also achieved a performance of 75 percent in the third quarter of 2009 which ended on September 31.

Said he: “I am delighted to say that in the third quarter which started July 1 to September 31, 2009, the budget performance was 75 percent. You will recall that we achieved 67 percent in the first and second quarters with cumulative gross actual now standing at 70 percent.”

Governor Fashola added that the impact of the performance of the budget can be felt in all sectors in the state in life changing policies such as infrastructural development, rural and urban and riverine areas where the impacts are currently felt.

The Governor also said there is much that the State Government has done and intends to do for the rural areas, stressing that for the Administration rural development is approached methodically and with detailed planning.

In his words: “We are reporting what had happened in the last quarter and just toward the close of the third quarter we did a budget reordering and the impact of that does not impact on this review. All of that will take its full impact in the last quarter”.

The Governor commended the contractors working on various sites in the State for the increased diligence with which they are doing the job, adding that this had enabled the state deliver a greater performance of its promises despite the inclement weather.

“We expect to see a better performance and earn more revenues in the final quarter when we will have dry weather. Also don’t forget we had the 30 days of Ramadan when there was a lull because most contractors and workers had to observe the fasting and on an empty stomach little can only be done by the workers”, Governor Fashola added.

Governor Fashola explained that the State Government is embarking on a major overhaul of the systems by setting up a Ways and Means committee to assist in assessing how the state has been performing in the last 10 to 15 years.

The Committee, Governor Fashola, added will quantify the investments made in terms of improved technology and whether ,the full benefit of those technologies have been taken and: “what we have done then that we should stop doing now in order to remove bottlenecks from the system, what are the new things we have started doing that we should do more”.

On the forthcoming U-17 World Cup to be hosted by Nigeria later this month, Governor Fashola said it represents a big branding event for Nigeria, emphasising that Nigeria must ensure that it puts the best foot forward.

He added that Nigeria ’s various entry points must operate efficiently to issue passages seamlessly to all the categories of visitors and tourists that will come to Nigeria for the event.

Governor Fashola noting that every service provider must do so with a smile during this period also said all restaurants and hospitality business outfits in Nigeria must be at their best during the competition as it represents a golden opportunity for the true picture of what the country stands for to be conveyed and felt by the visitors so that whenever inaccuracies are being peddled overseas they can act as ambassadors and correcting agents for the country.

While speaking on the recently concluded International Bar Association Conference which he attended in Madrid, Spain , Governor Fashola said it is a very important gathering, especially now that many issues challenge humanity.

Said he: “Our environment is threatened, the global economy is challenged, we are at a new information age, a lot of things have to change, new jobs have to be created, old jobs will go. Some businesses have folded up while new ones are to be created across the world. We are going into the new age and so many things are changing and that is why that meeting was important and will remain a very important global meeting for the professionals”.

Also speaking on the Budget Review meeting, the State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Nwabueze while reiterating the assertions of the Governor said the 70 percent cumulative performance “remains the best nationwide and unlike other governments that give you phantom budget performance numbers and you can’t see anything on the ground, I think Lagosians can see when we say we have performed 70 percent o f our budget, they can see what we have spent it on”.

The Commissioner pledged that the Government would continue to do better: “We urge you to pass the word to Lagosians. This is a Government that has consistently demonstrated capacity and responsibility in utilizing public funds”, he urged the newsmen adding, “You have the responsibility to dispel the notion that we have all the money because we don’t”.

With respect to expenditure, the Commissioner said Government has done a good job of containing and keeping recurrent expenditure down while focusing more on capital expenditure adding that the expectation of Government is that in the fourth quarter of the year which has just begun and with more clement weather, it will step up performance on the capital expenditure side with the hope that by the end of the year it will report even better overall budget performance.

“The deterring factor is revenue. We have demonstrated capacity to spend revenues when we get them. We said revenue performance was only 74 percent, so we need Lagosians to step up paying their taxes as and when due. We need people who have payment obligations to Government to do so without prompting”, Nwabueze said.

On the informal sector and its impact on the overall revenue performance of the State, the Commissioner said although tax from the sector is improving, the effort would take a while to make any appreciable impact.

According to him, “By the time you get one million traders to actually pay their taxes, it takes a lot of effort to get that. Most of them are paying a base tax of N2, 500 per person. It still amounts to N2.5 billion which is small”, adding, however, that Government would continue to push for better performance and hope that the point will be reached where Lagosians will pay their taxes as something that makes them worthy citizens and without which they would feel irresponsible.

The Governor was flanked during the interview by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Opeyemi Bamidele, while the budget review session was attended by the Deputy Governor, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan and members of the State Executive Council as well as some senior government functionaries.