All seems not be well between former governor of Lagos, Mr Babatunde Fashola and his successor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode as the latter has indicted the former of abysmal implementation of the 2015 budget which was read on the floor of the state House of Assembly.
Ambode who took over from Fashola on May 29, 2015 has since cancelled some of the contracts and agreements entered into by the Fashola’s administration and also released indicting information about the amounts approved by the last administration for certain contracts.
The Government had posted information on the official website of the state’s Public Procurement Agency (PPA) http://www.lagosppa.gov.ng about the list of contracts awarded under the Fashola administration. The list stated that Fashola had spent N78.3 million on his personal website, http://www.tundefashola.com, in 2014, and another N139 million on the drilling of two boreholes at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
The information generated uproar from the public who had viewed the former governor as a Spartan administrator.
Fashola, however, fired back describing the development as an attempt to drag him into a dirty pig fight.
Government has, however, removed the controversial information from the section listing all the contracts awarded under the Fashola administration between 2013 and 2014.
In a letter dated September 3, 2015, Ambode had urged the House of Assembly to grant the re-ordering of the N489.690 billion 2015 budget to jumpstart some infrastructural projects approved by the Fashola administration and complete certain ongoing projects in the state.
The governor, in the letter, revealed that as at June 30, 2015, a month after Fashola handed over to him, the overall performance of the budget stood at 63 per cent, a distant leg from the set target of 100 per cent.
Ambode had described the Fashola administration’s attention to capital projects in his last budget as “abysmal”.
The governor writes: “When further analysed, the recurrent expenditure stood at 97 per cent, while capital expenditure was at an abysmal 29 per cent performance, portending a 24:76 capital/recurrent ratio.”
This level of performance, according to Ambode, made it imperative to go back to the drawing board to structure a more conscientious approach to tilt the total capital investment in the remaining months of the 2015 budget so as to meet the target capital/recurrent ratio of 51:49.
According to the Governor, a sum of N23.97 billion would need to be re-ordered, out of which, the sum of N18.278 billion would be voted for capital projects, while N5.697 billion is meant for recurrent expenditure.
Reasons for the re-ordering, according to the letter, include construction of pedestrian bridge at Ojodu Berger and construction of fly-over bridges at Ajah Roundabout and Pen Cinema, Agege.
The letter said further that the budget re-ordering proposal would cater for the continuation of the construction of blue light rail project; continuation of the construction of Lekki-Epe Expressway and acquisition of emergency/rescue helicopters and heavy duty equipment (cranes and forklift) and for employment, trust fund and wealth creation programmes.
He, however, noted that the government would not present any supplementary budget for the remaining year because of lack of new revenue sources to fund the appropriations.
“It is worthy of note that we are constrained by the fact that there are no new revenue sources for the remaining months of the year, and as a result, we would not be in a position to propose a Supplementary Budget. Hence, the recourse to a re-ordering of the Y2015 Budget,” the letter reads.
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