In what seems to lend credence to his insistence that his administration is challenged by paucity of funds, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has written to seek the House of Assembly, seeking approval for a loan of N250 billion.
This is coming as the House of Assembly is continuing its investigation into how former governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode spent billions of naira to purchase 280 buses meant for the Bus Reform Initiative (BRI) of the last administration.
Three former commissioners in the Ambode’s administration were on Tuesday invited by the investigative committee set up by the house, to tell the lawmakers what they know about the purchase of the buses, which the lawmakers have said was never approved by them.
Sanwo-Olu in letter seeking the lawmakers’ approval for the loan, which was read by the clerk of the assembly Sani Azeez, on Tuesday, said he was constrained by lack of funds.
The loan request was broken down as follows: a fixed rate bond of N100 billion from the capital market and an internal loan of N150 billion.
Sanwo-Olu in the letter further said that the budgetary provisions of recurrent and capital budget of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were not likely to be utilised before the end of the year, noting that N34.050 billion can be re-ordered.
The governor said that his administration was constrained by the lack of revenue for the remaining months of the year and would not be in a position to propose a supplementary budget, which informed the recourse to re-ordering 2019 budget.
According to him, the budget as at 31st August, 2019 had a 71 per cent overall performance, which is below the set target of 100 per cent.
“Further analysis shows that the recurrent expenditure stood at 80 per cent while capital expenditure was at 64 per cent performance, portending a 49:51 capital/recurrent ratio against the target of 55:45.
“It should be noted that some of the major MDAs that are supposed to implement the capital expenditure are performing below expectation, while others have almost exhausted their budgetary provisions,” said the governor.
Sanwo-Olu in the letter sought the cooperation of other arms of government with his administration to enable him keep its electoral promises to the citizens.
He said his administration was looking to taking advantage of the expected dry season to complete key projects, including Lagos Badagry express road; Agege Pen cinema overhead bridge; Agric-Isawo road; Bola Ahmed Tinubu -Igbogbo road; rehabilitation of schools; initiate and complete smart city project and zero tolerance for portholes amongst others.
Meanwhile, speaker of the house, Mudashiru Obasa has committed the governor’s request to the joint committees on finance and budget and economic planning. The committee is to report back to the house on October 21, 2019.
