At Lagos Assembly, We Don’t Collect Bribe To Pass Budget –Obasa The lawmaker representing Agege Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, who doubles as the Chairman, House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, Mudashiru Obasa, recently met with Assembly correspondents at a programme tagged “Time Out with the Press,” where he spoke extensively on the activities of his committee including issues in the House and other state matters. Our Senior Reporter, Akinwunmi King, was there. Can you enlighten us more on the duties of the House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, which is under you; how juicy is it? As Chairman, House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, I would say our duty mainly has to do with the budget of the state and the budget is an annual thing and how to keep tab on the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to see how they would comply with the budget law without going beyond what was approved in the budget. That is why we carry out quarterly appraisal of the budget, where the MDAs appear before the committee to discuss their activities and how they have performed so far. Largely, budget has to do with the revenue; it depends on how much revenue you can generate and this has to do with proposal of what the government plans to do in a given year. Without revenue, whether allocation or Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), it would be difficult to achieve what we have in the proposal. That is what we do to ensure that the proposal is realistic when we are treating the budget through budget defense and when we have discussions with the MDAs. On the issue of it being juicy, that is not part of what we do. When I started in 2003, I was the Chairman, House Committee on Rural Development in 2007; I was Chairman, Public Accounts Committee (Local) and now I am in-charge of Economic Planning and Budget. I see all the committees as the same; we are only given responsibilities to handle. The chairman is not the only member of the committee. There are other members and you have to work together with them to carry out the responsibilities the House gave you. As the chairman of the committee, you don’t really have a say on the decisions of the committee. You still have to come back to the House to defend your reports, if the whole House likes, they would agree or else, they can reject your reports. So, you don’t have the final say on the functions of the committee. Recently, there were posters in Agege, indicating that you intend to become the Speaker of the House come 2015. What do you intend to do differently if you eventually become the Speaker? The correspondent from PM News in the House sent me an SMS on the issue after the posters emerged in Agege and I told him that with my years in the House of Assembly, I am mature enough to understand that Speakers are not elected or selected on the road or in the local government, it is the responsibility of the leaders of the party and members of the House to decide who would be the Speaker of the Assembly. Also, I think there are still many hurdles to be crossed such as the primary elections, and the general elections, so if we are still in March 2014 and somebody is talking about becoming the Speaker, that person cannot claim to be a member of this House of Assembly. It is not out of place to nurse an ambition or have interest in any position. But I wish to tell you in this forum that I have no knowledge of the said posters and I don’t know those behind it. On if I wish to become the Speaker or not, the party leaders would decide and members of the House of Assembly would decide when the time comes. About three or four years ago, the House took a decision on budget re-ordering and said they would not entertain it again. But last year, there was another re-ordering. We will like to know if your budget defence is a mere formality and if it is not, don’t you feel that budget re-ordering should no longer be entertained? We should know that budget is a mere proposal based on data and information available to the executive at a point, which means that it is not stable. It is not permanent; a lot of factors are responsible for the proposal nationally and internationally. As we are all aware, we have a monolithic economic system in the country. The international market where the price of oil is determined should be considered. If we now propose that at the end of the day, a barrel of oil would be sold for 75 dollars and something happens, which affects the figure, it is certain that it will affect the plans we have in the country and since the Federal Government is responsible for the allocation to the states, it would affect it. Also, talking about IGR, which is also a projection, we may have planned to generate N1billion and since revenue has not been coming from the Federal Government, it will affect our budget. So, what we have to do in order to achieve most of the projects that we intend to carry out is to come back to the House to address the budget, which is referred to as re-ordering. If after passing the budget, the executive feels that most of what they intend to do in the Ministry of the Environment, for instance, are no longer urgent like what we need to do in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), we will take most of what we have approved for the Environment Ministry to WAPA to carry out the projects for the people of the state. It is a request from the executive and we go through these to see if they should be granted or not. Most of the time, we discover that the requests are made in the interest of our people, knowing that we are representing the people and we have to do what will help our state and the people. When the Federal Government makes budget, we see figures meant for fuel for generators and all that and these are discussed in the National Assembly. In Lagos State, we don’t see the breakdown; is it that the governor is too smart for the House or that the House overlooks such areas? The figures presented by the state have to do with what the executive presents. After presenting them, we invite the MDAs. Apart from the Economic Planning and Budget Committee, there are sub-committees of the House, which will also question the proposals of the MDAs. They will also come with reports to my committee and we will meet with the MDAs. If there is no reason for us to change what they request, we will not change it. We have actually rejected some proposals in the past; it is just that we don’t make noise about them. Last year, Ibile Holdings was allocated N1 billion and we rejected it because we were not convinced. About five or seven MDAs were also questioned openly during the last budget exercise. These are the things we do. We must ensure that we do not rock the boat or create fears. It is not that the governor is smart. But even if the governor is smart, I can tell you that we also have smart people in the Lagos State House of Assembly. We have monitors for budget breakdown, the MDAs have monitors for their proposals, even our budget defence session is open to anybody to observe. We have never sent anybody out of it. The question on diesel and others are stated, but we removed some in this year’s budget. Since we have now PPP they don’t need generators any longer. Governor Babatunde Fashola once said that Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) is not a revenue-generating agency but in the 2014 budget, LASTMA was asked to generate N500 million, what do you say to that? LASTMA is not a revenue-generating agency. It is an agency that should instill discipline in our people but some people have to be sanctioned to pass the message across, which is where the issue of fine comes in. They are not meant to generate revenue but some people have to pay fines after committing traffic offence. So, we monitor some of them to make them work. If LASTMA generates N3 billion or N4 billion, you need to give them a push to generate more. Also, it is all about traffic; the number of vehicles that come to Lagos increases every year and LASTMA also carries out some duties, which motorists pay for. But don’t you think giving LASTMA target would make the officers more aggressive? I still want to state that LASTMA is not about revenue but because there is a law that must be observed and those that violate it must be punished, fines have to be paid. When they pay, the money goes to the coffers of the state government, and to ensure there is no leakage, we have to continue to push them. You call it target but I call it responsibility. When somebody is fined and that person pays, it has to go to the coffers of the state government, and when they keep paying, there is a need for us to project that it has to increase; but it is not purely about revenue generation. As the Chairman of House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, are you comfortable with the fact that Lagos State is owing about N437 billion? We should look at some other factors when talking about our debt profile. Let’s consider the revenue capability of Lagos State in a month. We generate N20 billion in a month. So if we multiply this by 12, you will see that we can pay the debt back in two years. The question now should be what the money was used for. If they are visible, yes, and if they are not, we can now talk about the fiscal responsibility. So, what is our capability to pay back? Lagos is buoyant and our government is very responsible when it comes to fiscal responsibility. One of the recommendations of the House to the committee is that the allocation to some MDAs should be increased; we want to know what the committee is doing about that? On the breakdown of the budget of the MDAs, we have monitors, which is where we get information about the budget estimates. If we are not satisfied, we can then call the affected ministry for explanation. So far, we don’t have any reason to doubt any ministry and the monitors have been very helpful. We listed some MDAs, whose allocations should be increased. We have about six of them and we have invited them with the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget and talk to them on the increase. We will continue that. We have observed that budget defence is not transparent because journalists have never been invited to cover it, why is it so? The budget defence session is an open one, though we have not invited the press. I didn’t know that we should invite you. We will invite you next time. That we don’t invite the press does not mean we are not transparent. If the budget defence is not done in the open, the presentation of the report is done on the floor of the House. Whatever we agree on at the budget defence is brought to the whole House through the reports. The governor was here recently to talk about dwindling federal allocation to the state; was he seeking re-ordering? When the commissioner came to brief us on the dwindling federal allocation to the state, we said the complaint came rather late since it started in 2013 but we thank the governor for deeming it fit to inform the House and carry us along in the activities of the state. We cannot rule out the possibility of re-ordering the budget since we are not realising the expected revenue from the Federal Government. It will not be out of place if the executive asks for budget re-ordering. We will gladly do it if we believe there is a tangible reason for it. What are your challenges as the Chairman of the Budget and Economic Planning Committee? The committee has lots of challenges mainly because when you look at the composition of the committee, you expect people with financial background to take charge of the committee. But when we go for elections, such requirements are not met, so most times we go to see qualified economists and all that. We sometimes have to consult professionals for our work. We go to them to get information. We also have budget office of the state that we consult to work with the House on financial issues. These are some of the challenges. Some of the MDAs too don’t respond in time, when we need them or they don’t have the required documents, and we have to wait for them. We had to mention some MDAs openly during the last budget presentation. There is a street in your constituency called Alfa Nla that has been under construction for about four years and it is yet to be completed, what is the reason for this? I agree with you that Alfa Nla/Capitol Road Canal project has been delayed for long. The project ought to have been handled by the World Bank but the condition they gave was difficult for us to take, which was why the state took it over. When you have such a project with a huge figure, the contractor is a major factor, since you cannot tell the contractor to complete it at once. The place is in the heart of my constituency, I used to call it an abandoned project but when I saw the governor, he said it is not, that it is an on-going project. So, the delay has to do with fund. The project is at the completion stage. They are now clearing the road that was blocked. Prior to the passage of the budget, you said some MDAs did not furnish your committee with certain documents, which led to the delay in passing the budget. We later heard that it was because they refused to give money to your committee that made you not to attend to them. Is this true? I have been in this House of Assembly since 2003; we have not passed any budget because of bribe from the government or anybody. I see the state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze, about twice or three times in a year. I have not been to his ministry as the chairman of this committee. So there is no reason for me to go to him to ask for money not to talk of going to meet members of the sub-committees of the House. Most of the sub-committees members are new, and the kind of respect they have for me as a ranking member is high. How can I then ask them for money? When it comes to money, you can always vouch for this House. That does not mean we don’t have our shortcomings but they are not about money, especially, when it comes to requests from members of the executive. It has never happened. How have you impacted the lives of the people of your constituency? This administration has been very nice to Agege as a whole in the area of road construction. We have never had it so good and there are still more going on. We are doing well in my constituency, they are still asking for more really. On my part, I have done a lot within my little resources. We distribute GCE forms annually and we do empowerment programmes. Recently, I organised free medical check-up for people, about 3,000 people benefited, we did eye screening and we are giving out free eyeglasses soon. What are your plans for 2015? On my plans for 2015, our party has a way of doing it. You cannot decide for yourself, though you can declare your interest in a particular position. There is the likelihood that I will still come back to the Assembly in 2015. Daily Independent.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:45:10 +0000
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