Sanwo-Olu signs N873bn 2019 budget

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state, has signed the 2019 budget of the state into law.

The N873 billion budget was signed on Monday.

According to the budget breakdown, 45% (N393,841,387) of the budget will be dedicated to recurrent expenditure while 55% (N479, 691, 775) is to be utilised for capital expenditure.

Akinwunmi Ambode, former governor of the state, had submitted a budget proposal of N852,316,936,483 to the Lagos state house of assembly on February 5, 2019.

Before he submitted the proposal, the ex-governor was threatened with impeachment for the delay.

The proposal was increased by N21 billion after deliberations by the lawmakers and it was passed on April 30, 2019.

Sanai Agunbiade, majority leader, had accused Ambode of spending budget estimates without being presented to the house.

“We want the public to know that the major issue in contention is the 2019 appropriation bill, which by now we feel should have been before the house,” he had said.

“Unless the budget is laid before the house, there is no budget before the house of assembly. We were willing to take the budget, but we didn’t have the budget.

“We now discovered that expenditures are being incurred and warrants have been issued in respect of the budget that has not been laid before the house.

“This we found inappropriate, and before this also, we have found some infractions in the 2018 budget, where we discovered that some expenditures were made outside the budget without the approval of the house.”