Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Lagos State government has written a letter to the state House of Assembly seeking its support for the re-ordering of the 2017 Budget.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode made the request in a letter he personally signed, and which was read on the floor of the House by the Clerk, Mr Azeez Sanni during plenary on Monday.
According to the request, a total sum of N42.028 billion made up of N31.105 billion from capital expenditure and N10.922 billion from recurrent expenditure would be re-ordered if the proposal is approved by the Assembly.
It was stated in the letter that the re-ordering would help in upscaling of road construction and rehabilitation to improve connectivity.
In addition, Mr Ambode revealed in the letter that the re-ordering would be spent on purchasing 700 buses for Lagbus in line with state transportation reforms, upgrading of equipment for the state emergency authority and improving security equipment for better surveillance.
This will however, not affect the total budget of N813 billion passed for 2017.
The Governor stated in the letter that the 2017 budget has performed 64 percent by the middle of the year, adding that the re-ordering was necessitated by the review of the priority of the state government.
“It is now expedient to re-order the budget to address some of the critical expenditures to enhance efficient delivery of services.
“We want to provide world class infrastructure to the people of the state.
“The proposed re-ordering is expected to increase the tempo of good services and address the priority of the state government.
“It will address main fiscal strategy and sustain expenditure profile, it will drive capital expenditure by improving the capital recurrent ratio,” he said.
The proposal was however, not discussed by the lawmakers before the House adjourned sitting to Tuesday, September 26, 2017.
