LAGOS State House of Assembly, on Monday, turned down the  supplementary budget of N46 billion  requested by the state governor, Babatunde Fashola.

The refusal of the House to approve the supplementary budget proposal would be the second time the  House would turn down  the extra budget proposal.

After taking the report of the ad hoc Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, which the House mandated to look into the request before it went on recess six weeks ago, the lawmakers expressed disaffection with the entire proposal.

According to the lawmakers, reasons given by the state government for the supplementary budget were not  convincing. They specifically frowned on the executive decision to borrow the sum of N26 billion as part-funding for the supplementary budget.

Giving the report of the ad hoc committee, chairman of the committee, Honourable Korede Kolapo Osunsanya, said the supplementary budget  to be financed by N10 billion to be generated by internal generated revenue, could not be approved because  the possibility of generating the N10 billion was not feasible, because the 2010  budget had not performed.

He maintained that the sum of 26 billion was also expected to be raised through loan, but the House could not give its consent, because the loan and bond taken so far  were not well serviced so that could not encourage the House to approve it to take another loan, because it would further put the state in debt.

According to Hon. Babatunde Ogala, “the House is not convinced about the proposal based on the available information submitted, especially as it pertains to borrowing.”

The borrowing, the lawmakers said, was unnecessary because the sum of N54 billion earlier approved by the House in the 2010 budget was yet to be assessed by the government. They, therefore, queried the rational behind asking for an additional N26 billion.

The lawmakers frowned on the rising debt profile of the state, saying that it was not ready to increase the debt profile by approving additional borrowing except it was absolutely necessary.

It thus advised the executive to first make use of the earlier facility of N54 billion  granted it before demanding for approval for additional loan.

It will be recalled that Governor Fashola sent an extra budget proposal of N46 billion to the House in June. The House had earlier sent the proposals back, because of errors it observed in the letter.

The Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Ben Akabueze, had apologised for the errors and returned a corrected version to the House before it went on recess.

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