Agencies of the State to ensure total compliance with queries in the
report of the Auditor-General.
The House said it would ensure the enforcement of the law that requires
strict compliance with the Auditor-General’s report as it begins an audit
compliance exercise of the various ministries, departments and agencies of
the state.
Hon. Moshood Oshun, Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts
(for State) gave the warning on Monday adding that since the intention of
the state government was to make Lagos a better place, it was necessary to
keep every stakeholder on his toes.
“The auditor-general’s report was done about five months ago and there are
issues some of the ministries, agencies and parastatals were asked to
comply with. We just want to know if they have complied with it.
“You need to understand the fact that asking them to comply is a matter of
the law. The ones we have done so far have been satisfactory. We want to
assume and hope others would be like that.
“There is a penalty for failure to comply. Remember the committee
represents the House. If there is anything we think is beyond the
committee, we take it before the House of 40 members representing all the
residents of Lagos.
“There are laws guiding the committee and its work and we would want to
apply the law at every given time.
“We don’t want to pre-empt because we don’t want to believe there would be
anyone who would not comply with the decision of the House.
“This has got nothing to do with political affiliation. This is about
Lagos and everybody, including the leaders of all the political parties in
the state, want Lagos to move forward.
“It is not about party; we want our state to compete with the best in the
world and for that to happen, we must all work, put in our best. We want
the best for Lagos, the governor wants the best for Lagos and represents
all the parties in Lagos since the day he was sworn-in.
“The House also represents Lagosians and not parties and we must move the
state forward.
“Lagos has always been known as centre of excellence and no matter what
happens, we try to find and move to the next level. This had been proven
several times beyond reasonable doubt.
“We saw it when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was governor of the state and ensured
that the state moved to the next level, we saw it when Babatunde Fashola
was there and we are seeing it now.
“We don’t have a choice, the price of crude oil will fall, but what is
important for us is to make sure that the Lagos of yesterday is not the
same with what we have today. We must move forward. Lagosians must also be
ready to join hands with the government for us to move forward,” he said.
During the review of the compliance level of the Ministry of Local
Government, Establishment, Training and Pensions, the Permanent Secretary,
Mrs. F. S. Adesoye, said the ministry had complied with all the
recommendations in the Auditor-General’s report concerning her ministry.
She also disclosed that the ministry beat its budget target of N4 million
for the two halls under its watch by generating N4.8 million in 2015.
Oshun applauded the ministry for exceeding the budget target on the halls,
but queried why there was no proper documentation with regard to the usage
of the halls.
To this, the Permanent Secretary said the ministry had adopted the use of
a log book as advised by the Auditor-General’s report.
The committee also challenged the ministry to up the revenue generated
with the use of hall to N10 million.
Other agencies of the government were taken by the committee.