Fashola, Amosun, Fayemi Sign 2013 Budget, as Mimiko Presents His

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has signed the 2013 appropriation bill of N499.105 billion into law, while assuring residents of the state that the budget would be implemented effectively.The appropriation law, which the governor proposed to the State House of Assembly on October 31, shows a marginal increase of N1.828 billion from a budget proposal of N497.277 billion.

Despite the increase of N1.828 billion, the governor Monday gave his assent to the 2013 budget, which was tagged a budget of poverty eradication and economic growth.

Speaking before signing the budget, Fashola said the administration would focus on completion of projects such as the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, maternal health centres in different parts of the state and light rail (blue line) currently being built along the Lagos-Badagry road among others.

Fashola said the budget implementation would start from January 2 in earnest, urging members of the State Executive Council and the entire state public service to buckle up and be ready for work.

He explained the developmental issues that really “challenge the people today. It is not so much about how quickly the budget is passed, although that helps, but really it is about how rigorously it is implemented.

“That is why the issue of revenue that you raised is important because this is what it is, a statement of what we want to do. And it would only be done if first you earn the money to do it and also if we generate the energy and commitment of all of us in our various areas to meet our expectations”.

Fashola said it was fair “to acknowledge that the House of Assembly has given the state government a good head start as in a matter of a few hours from today, the budget would be fully operational as it would commence full operation from January 2 immediately after the New Year celebrations”.

In his address, Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, said the legislative arm made a corrective amendment to the draft figure submitted by the Executive to arrive at the N499.105 billion.

He explained that the 2013 budget “is made up a sum of N269.376 billion as capital expenditure and a sum of N229.729 billion as recurrent expenditure all totalling N499.105 billion.
In another development, the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, ended the last working day of the year 2012 by signing into law the 2013 Appropriation Bill.

The governor signed the Bill at exactly 6.30 p.m. yesterday at the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

In his brief remarks before assenting to the Bill, Amosun commended the efforts of the state House of Assembly for diligent appraisal of the budget estimates before passing them.

“After exhaustive deliberations, you were able to pass the budget and present it for assent before the end of the year. This demonstrates that both the legislature and executive are working together for the good people of Ogun State,” the governor said.

Earlier in his remarks, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon Suraj Adekumbi, lauded the cooperation of the executive during the defence of the budget proposals.

In the same vein, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State yesterday signed into law the 2013 appropriation bill of N97 billion, just as he also pledged to establish a new Ministry of Rural Development and Economic Empowerment to combat poverty at the grassroots level.

Yesterday’s ceremony held at Jibowu Hall, Government’s House, Ado-Ekiti, followed last week’s passage of the budget by members of the state House of Assembly, led by the speaker, Hon. Adewale Omirin.
The N97 billion budget estimate tagged: “Budget of Consolidation and Empowerment”, has N49 billion as capital and N48 billion as recurrent expenditures.

Beside the budget, the governor also signed into law nine other bills, which include, Ekiti State Peace Corps Law 2012, Law To prohibit Smoking in public places 2012, Ekiti State Lotteries Law 2012, Ekiti State House of Assembly Commission Loans Board Law 2012.

Others are Law to provide pensions for former Governors and Deputy Governors of Ekiti State and other auxiliaries matters Thereto, Ekiti State Board of Internal Revenue Law 2013, A bill to Amend Local Government Service Commission Law 2012 and a bill to Amend Local Government Administration Law and others.

Speaking on the occasion, Fayemi said the main focus of 2013 Budget was to consolidate on the prosecution of all the ongoing projects and empowerment of people in 2013 to enhance tangible, concrete and evidence-based development in the state.

According to him, he was particularly interested in ensuring infrastructural development in all the nooks and crannies of the state, saying there would be a special ministry to handle matters relating to human and material development at the grassroots.

In the same way, Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, yesterday presented a budget proposal of N151 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2013 fiscal year.

The budget, tagged “A Caring Heart Budget IV”, which was N5 billion less than the 2012 budget of N156 billion, which has N73.350 billion as recurrent expenditure, while the sum of N77.750 had been proposed as capital expenditure.

The governor, who disclosed that the capital budget proposal was N9.34 billion or 10.74 per cent lower than the 2012 capital budget of N86.99 billion, said the recurrent expenditure proposal was six per cent higher than the previous year.

He attributed the increase in the recurrent expenditure to general wage increase across the public and tertiary institutions in the state and because the state has elevated its infrastructural base.

Mimiko, who said the state government had embarked on several life transforming initiatives in the last four years and some of which have not been delivered, said the major objective of the 2013 budget was to further consolidate on the gains of the last four years by completing ongoing projects and programmes.

He said the budget projections were predicated on the assumptions contained in the 2013 Federal Government Budget crude oil benchmark price and an inflationary rate of 12.3 per cent amongst others.

Giving the breakdown of the expected revenue, the governor said N43 billion was being expected as Statutory Allocation, N12 billion from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), N10 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) and N7 billion from the Roll Over Fund.