Y2021 BUDGET: REVERT TO E-PROCUREMENT – LAGOS ASSEMBLY TO MINISTRIES
Lagos State House of Assembly through its Committee on Science and Technology has held its quarterly budget review for Ministry, Departments and Agencies and advocated for more usage of E-procurement to speed up the internal process of procurement in releasing funds for recurrent and capital projects to the State’s MDAs.
This was one of the issues discussed with the Ministry of Science and Technology which is the pilot ministry for the commencement and advancement of E-procurement to further the transformation of the State in line with the 21st Century.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Olanrewaju Afinni, disclosed that one of the mandates of the Ministry of Science and Technology is to ensure that all MDAs make use of the E-procurement application in order to ensure a hastened process of procurement applications.
Hon. Afinni attributed this to the bottleneck procedures which delay the accountability of funds expended in each quarter of the fiscal year.
“The whole reason for approval of funds is to be able to spend as at when due. We should do away with bottleneck procedures.
“We want to see that funds received for projects are spent judiciously and this can only be achieved if internal procurement processes are fast-tracked,” Hon. Afinni advised.
Speaking on the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the State, the Committee noted that the Digital Village which is meant to generate revenue for Lagos through the Ministry is presently not meeting expectations.
Looking through the budget performance of the Lagos State Resident Registration Agency, LASRRA, the Committee proposed a meeting with the Agency’s contractors for the appraisal of their contractual agreement to determine the status of their projects and the need for further funding.
In addition, the Committee requested for all the Ministry’s documented vouchers to juxtapose their spending in the first quarter.
Hon. Members present at the meeting include: Hon. Solaja-Saka Nurudeen and Hon. Ajani Owolabi.
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