LSHA orders LGs to prepare 2016 budget

Lagos state house of assembly, Tuesday, through its committee on local government, called on the Transition Committees in the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas, LCDA, to prepare the 2016 Appropriation. The call to motion was moved by Kazeem Alimi,  chairman committee on local government. He recommended that the council budget should be prepared and forward to the assembly for grassroots development. “2016 appropriation in respect to 20 Local Government Area and 37 LCDAs in the state should be prepared by the transition committee at the council areas. “This House calls on the Executive Secretaries of 20 LG Areas and 37 LCDA to forward same to the assembly since the councillors are not in place.” he said. Also speaking, Rotimi Olowo, the committee chairman on Budget and Economic Planning commended the prime mover of the motion and described it as ‘timely’. Olowo said, “Since the budget of the state is passed, it is imperative for the House to pass that of the Local Government too. It is timely,” Also, the majority leader, Sanai Agunbiade said, “the law of the state provides for Local Government committee to manage the affairs of the Local Government in the absence of democratically elected councillors. In his ruling, Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, said, “the exercise should be used to evaluate the transition committee at the Local Government. “The House Committee should look at what the transition committee in each council areas has been doing since the last one year and how well they have been holding forth. “The essence of having the transition committee is to make sure they perform. If any one of them is found incompetent, we should take the opportunity to look into that”. The Speaker however constituted a joint committee of Budget and Economic Planning, Local Government Administration and Public Accounts (Local) to look into the budgetary provision of the council areas. Obasa opined that the committees would help in the outcome of the evaluation.