Lagos Assembly summons Ambode over budget

The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday urged Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to appear before it within one week on the controversy concerning this year’s budget.

The year’s Appropriation Bill has not been presented to the lawmakers, causing hot disagreement between the Executive and the Legislature.

Last month, the governor sent the budget to the Assembly against the tradition of laying it before the Assembly.

Speaker Mudashiru Obasa told his colleagues at yesterday’s plenary that it was important to give the governor a fair hearing on the budget.

The Speaker recalled that there had been violations of the Constitution and alleged infractions by the governor.

He said: “The Attorney General, the Finance Commissioner and Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, who ought to have advised the governor did not do so.

“The most important thing is that we should let the people know that a budget that was yet to be approved was being spent. This was why we could not attend to the governor on the budget on January 21.

“We must give them a fair hearing to come and explain what happened. The point has been made that there must be something before the Assembly before you can commence expenditure. We want to call on the governor to come within a week to explain himself along with the other officials.

“We can start gathering signatures for impeachment. We can exercise patience and wait till another time.”

The lawmakers were reacting to a report presented by Deputy Speaker Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni as the Chairman of the committee set up to examine issues surrounding the 2019 budget at a parliamentary meeting of the lawmakers.

Members of the Committee included the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts (State), Moshood Oshun; the Chairman of the House Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, Gbolahan Yishawu; the Chairman of the House Committee on the Environment, Dayo Saka-Fafunmi and the Chairman of the House Committee on Works and Infrastructure, Abiodun Tobun.

Eshinlokun said the committee met with relevant commissioners and heads of agencies, including the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Segun Banjo, who said no money had been spent in this year’s budget.

The lawmaker said the Accountant General told the committee that a warrant had been issued that they could spend up to 25 per cent of the preceding year’s budget before the approval of the new year’s appropriation.

He said they would liaise with the Assembly if they wanted to spend up to N200 million.

Eshinlokun said: “We pointed out that the governor ought to lay the budget of the New Year before December 31, but that so far the budget was yet to be laid.

“We asked them to bring out the law that allows them to spend up to 25 per cent of the budget of the preceding year. They could not bring out such a law and we said what they did was wrong.

“We discovered that people had started receiving alerts and this has a grave implication for the Executive.

“It is our finding that for smooth running of the government, there must be a strict adherent to the constitution, and it must not be violated.

“We decided to bring the report before the lawmakers for us to take action.”

Yishawu said the Committee on Budget discovered during the budget review that there was specific expenditure that should have been approved by the Assembly on which funds were expended.

The lawmaker averred that these were misnomers, and that the Assembly noticed variation in the expenditure and budget approved.

“We had issues of virement and funds being spent without approval. We had cases of items that were not budgeted for being carried out. It shows the executive rewrite the budget at will.

“The Constitution states that the House of Assembly must approve all expenditures,” he added.

Most of the lawmakers expressed surprise and worry about the development.

They stressed that the governor and members of the State Executive Council (Exco) were committing glaring constitutional breaches which might lead to serious consequences.

According to them, things are shutting down in the state through the action of the Executive.

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Other lawmakers who contributed to the issue included Tunde Braimoh, Rotimi Olowo, Moshood Oshun, Richard Kasunmu, Rasheed Makinde, Yinka Ogundimu, Sola Giwa and Victor Akande.

Others are: Fatai Mojeed, Jude Idimogu, Noheem Raheem, Fatai Oluwa, Oladele Adekanye, Sabur Olayiwola, Akeem Shokunle and Mosunmola Sangodara.

Funmilayo Tejuosho, Setonji David, Dayo Saka-Fafunmi, Mojisola Miranda, Dayo Famakinwa, Saka Solaja, Lanre Ogunyemi and Folajinmi Mohammed expressed dismay at the development.

Omotayo Oduntan (Deputy Whip) “Today is a sad day. The executive just moved money from one ministry to another without recourse to the Assembly. When all these happen, it shows a total disregard to the budget being passed by the House. We should get across to the Governor to explain himself or else we should begin an impeachment process.

But Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade said: “There are three arms of government of which the Executive is one. Our government is still running and not shut down. What we want to do is to ensure that the infraction from one arm of government does not affect another.

“It is clear that the budget has not been presented before the Assembly. My colleagues have addressed all the issues. We should let the public know that we do not have the budget before the Assembly.”

The lawmakers made three suggestions.

The first is that the commissioners, who were approved by the Assembly and are working with the governor would have a vote of no confidence passed on them because they have allegedly failed in their responsibilities.

The next is for the governor to resign or the Assembly should begin an impeachment process against him.

“We can communicate to him to reign or failure to do that is for us to start collecting signatures of lawmakers so that we can be seeing to have done our job,” Agunbiade said.

Chief Whip Rotimi Abiru said: “I want to adopt what has been done without wasting much time. There have been some infractions on the part of the governor and the position of the law is clear.”

Deputy Majority Leader Wahab Jimoh said: “I saw this coming like an ocean surge. The Attorney General wrote the House to withdraw the private member bills before the House. I had been noticing that there would be a crisis. The report I saw with the Deputy Speaker shows that the 2019 budget is being implemented.