Lagos State House of Assembly has insisted that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode must appear before it and present the 2019 Appropriation Bill, in line with parliamentary tradition.
The lawmakers resolved that Ambode must personally present the budget, in plenary, after the Clerk, Mr. Azeez Sanni, informed the assembly that his office received a Monday, December 17, 2018 message from governor Ambode on Friday, December 28, 2018, containing the 2019 budget.
The chamber said contrary to reports, it did not receive details of the new budget before it went on recess on December 18, 2018.
Regardless, the Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, refuted this. He said the assembly could not work on the budget because it was not sent on time.
“It is clear that we were ready to work on the budget before the Christmas break, but we could not work on it because we did not get it on time. We all know there are always bilateral meetings between the executive and the legislature before the budget is presented to the House. The constitution states that the governor should lay the budget before the House. Maybe the correspondence before the Clerk is about the presentation of the budget. So, what is before the House is a document that ought to be laid before the House and the committees of the House would sit on it. The report will not be considered by the committees if it is not laid.
“Members of the public may not know the procedure of the budget. Section 121 of the Nigerian Constitution states that the budget must be laid before the House before the end of a financial year,” Agunbiade said. Read more