Moshood Adebayo and Chinelo Obogo
In an unprecedented move, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Lagos Assembly is yet to transmit the 2019 budget to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his assent despite passing it into law over three weeks ago.
The Assembly passed the 2019 budget of N873, 532, 460, 725 into law on April 29, 2019, following months of face-off between the executive and the legislature. The house approved N393, 841, 387, 020 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for recurrent expenditure and N479, 691, 073, 705 from Development Revenue Fund for capital expenditure.
It is an increase by N21.215b from the budget presented by Governor Ambode on February 5, 2019 which was N852.317b. It is also a decrease from last year’s budget which stood at N1,046tn.
After the bill was passed, the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, according to parliamentary tradition, directed the Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni, to send a copy of the passed bill to the governor but over three weeks later, the document is yet to be transmitted to Ambode for his assent.
But three weeks later, our correspondents can confirm that the budget is yet to be transmitted to the governor. There has been no official response from the Assembly on why the budget transmission is being delayed.
Already, there are speculations from within the Assembly that the leadership of the House might likely hold on to the budget till the swearing-in of the governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Our correspondents sent messages in the early hours of Sunday to the chairman of the House Adhoc Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, Gbolahan Yishawu, to find out the reason for the delay, but till this evening, he is yet to respond to the enquiry.
A message was also sent to the chairman, Committee on Information, Funmilayo Tejuosho, but she also didn’t respond.
When they also tried to reach the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Habin Aruna, he too did not respond.
The Assembly had been embroiled in a faceoff with Governor Ambode since December 2018 for refusing to lay the Appropriation Bill on the floor of the House which led lawmakers to threaten him with impeachment if he failed to abide by the parliamentary tradition.
At one of its plenary sessions held at the beginning of the year, over 20 lawmakers took turns in accusing the governor of infractions and violation of the Constitution for spending from the 2019 budget which at the time was yet to be laid on the floor of the House.
Earlier this year, a committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshinloku, was set up to probe the 2018 expenditure of the governor. As a result, the state Commissioner for Finance, Accountant General, Budget and Planning Commissioner as well as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice were summoned to appear before the probe panel.
While submitting the report of the Committee before the House, the deputy speaker said his panel found Ambode guilty of the allegations against him and adding that he should either resign or be impeached.
Eshinlokun revealed that the committee met with relevant commissioners and heads of agencies and was told by the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Segun Banjo, that no money had been spent for the year.
He also said that the Accountant General told the committee that they were given the go-ahead to spend up to 25 percent of the 2019 budget before the approval in the New Year. He said that they would have to make a recourse to the House if they wanted to spend up to N200 million.
The crisis further deepened when on Wednesday, January 30, 2019, the House convened an emergency parliamentary session over the matter. Immediately after the session, the Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, told journalists at a press conference that the House was expecting Governor Ambode to appear before it on Monday, February 4, 2019 to explain why the executive had begun spending from a budget which was yet to be presented.
Agunbiade said: “The major issue in contention is the 2019 Appropriation Bill, which by now should have been in the House of Assembly. The stipulation in the constitution is that the bill which the governor shall cause to be prepared and laid on the floor of the House should be done before the commencement of another fiscal year, which is December 2018.
“Unless it is laid before House, there is no budget before the Assembly. Budget estimates is to be considered and passed by the legislature before any government can start spending out of it. Efforts were made and we were willing to receive it, but till date, it has not been laid. We then discovered that the executive was already spending out of a budget that had neither been presented nor passed by the legislature. Before this time, we found some infractions in the 2018 budget, where we discovered that some expenditure was made without the approval of the Assembly and we needed clarification.
“The constitution stipulates that when you must have presented the budget and the House is considering it, you can now spend out of it. But you can’t spend out of a budget that you have not presented.”