The Lagos State Government on Friday said it achieved 125 per cent performance in the fourth quarter implementation of its 2013 budget.
Gov. Babatunde Fashola gave the figure during the state’s Executive/Permanent Secretaries Retreat at Festac, in Lagos.
He said that the fourth quarter result, when added to those of the preceding quarters, gave the state an aggregate of 85 per cent in budget implementation for 2013.
Fashola attributed the feat to the successful completion of the state’s N87.5 billion bond issued in the last quarter of 2013 and execution of projects during the period.
“In the first quarter of 2013, we had 61 per cent; second quarter we recorded 83 per cent and third quarter budget implementation recorded 70 per cent, which at that time gave us an aggregate of January to September.
“However, by the end of the third quarter, we actually achieved 71 per cent performance.
“And I did promise then that we were going to ramp up our pace in the final quarter and I am glad we are now reporting a fourth quarter performance of 125 per cent, standing in isolation.
“This, you would understand, arises from the completion of the bond and also at a time there was a lot of work we had done when we had revenue shortfalls we hadn’t paid for and work we concluded towards the end of the year.
“So when you accumulate all of that together, we now have an aggregate performance of 85 per cent for 2013,” he said.
The government had budgeted N507 billion for the state in 2013.
Fashola described the aggregate budget performance as impressive, noting that it was good for service delivery to the people of the state.
He said the state government was poised for a better budget implementation in 2014 through the delivery of “impacting projects and services”.
The governor said the essence of the retreat was to enable government administrators strategise on effective implementation of the budget.
He urged residents to pay their taxes to enable the government achieve its developmental targets as all hands were on deck to realise the goals of the budget.
Commissioners, permanent secretaries and heads of parastatal agencies are attending the retreat.
The three -day retreat, which started on Thursday, ends on Saturday.
