Lagos State Government has put the performance of 2012 budget at 89 per cent. It added that the performance was the highest since the inception of Governor Babatunde Fashola administration in 2007. A statement on Saturday by Lagos Governor Special Adviser, Media, Hakeem Bello, said Fashola spoke after the first session of the three-day Executive Council/Permanent Secretaries Retreat at Lekki with the theme, ‘Enhancing Effective and Efficient Service Delivery in Lagos State.’
He said, “This improvement is the fulfilment of the promise we made during the third budget. It is also due to availability of resources and hard work.
“That time, we had a quarterly performance of 65 per cent, that was down from the second quarter of 84 per cent and I promised that we were going to work harder in the fourth quarter. I believe we have done just that.
“We have achieved a 143 per cent performance in the fourth quarter. So what we have cumulatively as performance for the 2012 is a budget performance of 89 per cent, the highest we have ever done since we started in 2007.”
The governor said the government was also able to close on its bond, saying the availability of funds made financing of projects easy.
He said the government had been moving round the state to make sure that the projects were going steady.
The governor said, “Last year’s budget was the highest budget we have ever had, so it was not only highest in performance, it was also highest in quantum.
“We have been going round in the last two weeks doing spot checks on what have been done. So, the evidence of how the budget performed that we are seeing now on paper is what we have seen in reality.”
Fashola, who promised better performance in 2013, appealed for voluntary payment of tax by all taxable citizens of the state, saying it was the only tool with which government could work effectively.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said the high performance of 2012 budget would go a long way to encourage the team to do better in the 2013 budget.
Punch Nigeria
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