Lagos commences bilateral discussion on 2018 budget

Bilateral discussions on the preparation of the 2018 Budget with all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Lagos State has commenced while submission and defense will start on Wednesday 1st November and run till 8TH November 2017, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Akinyemi Ashade, Honourable commissioner for Finance/Budget and Economic Planning.
According to the Call Circular signed by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Abayomi Kadri, the state government had recently embarked on series of Financial Management Reforms with major emphasis on revenue in view of the dwindling revenues accruing to Lagos from the Federation account.
The state government, he said is therefore committed to growing the State’s IGR with the revenue reform which is expected to promote efficient and effective collection and service delivery by MDAs in order to sustain the developmental programmes, projects and structures that have already been put in place.
While speaking in his office, Kadri explained further that the overarching policy documents that drives the Annual Budget still remains Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
However, he noted that the present administration has identified Environment, Transportation and Energy as priority areas for Y2018 budget while the Y2017 Budget focus on Environment, Transportation, Energy, Security, Infrastructure Development (Road), Job Creation, Education, Sports, Economy (including Agriculture and tourism), Health, Social Welfare and Justice still subsists.
He said MEPB will continue to maintain the established International standard of Nine (9) Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) with a view to engendering effective tracking of the budget, and also ensure that a robust and critical evaluation of programmes and projects is adopted in order to add value to the well-being of the citizens.
While soliciting for the cooperation of everyone in view of the time constraint, Kadri, enjoined all MDAs to review their strategies and strictly follow the reformed formats in the presentation of Y2018 budget proposals and also urged them to contact the Director of Budget, MEPB for any further clarifications.
It will be recalled that Y2018 Budget preparations started with a Consultative forum which was organized by MEPB in the three (3) Senatorial Districts and Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) also engaged Stakeholders’ at meetings across the Forty (40) Legislative Constituencies.
In line with the policy of the state government on inclusive governance, these meetings afforded citizens the opportunities to make inputs into the Budget which MDAs have been enjoined to incorporate as conveyed by MEPB into their budget proposals.