By Olanrewaju Adesanya
The Lagos State House of Assembly Committee Chairman on Economic Planning and Budget, Hon. Sa’ad Olumoh has cited the impactful contributions of newly employed youths in the
Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget .
Olumoh who led Members of the Committee on an oversight and familiarisation visit to the Ministry to avail them first hand understanding of their workings and activities on Friday, commended them for taking a right step in the right direction.
He attributed the Ministry’s performance to the employment of the young staff.
“For me, the young people that I see here are enough to make me celebrate because engaging young people to work in your Ministry has explained the excellence we have been able to see in your performance.”
The Chairman said, there is need for the Committee to familiarize itself with the workings of the Ministry as there are some lacuna in some ministries, and agencies’ budget which needs to be resolved to enhance the budget performance of the State.
Hon. Olumoh suggested a Permanent Secretary to handle the affairs of the Bureau of Statistics.
Adding, “On the issue of monitoring and evaluation, we are not happy, my colleagues did not say much about it but we need to say it as it is, we need to do more on the way our projects are being under evaluated, if you are not having enough manpower to be able to do more, employ more hands, so that Lagos can have value for money, .”
He also raised concern about Grants. ” Let us know what we are getting in cash and kind; you will spend it but let the House know, so that we can appropriate accordingly.
In the same vein, the Chairman frowns at the attitude of Special Advisers whose budgets are domiciled in the Ministry and have not been honouring the Committee’s Invites.
He insisted that it will not be acceptable anymore. He claimed that those Special Advisers are three in number “The Committee will oversight their Offices, we want to know what they are doing.”
Lending his voice to the discussion, Hon. Saheed Obafemi advised the Commissioner to use their Monitoring and Evaluation department so that the economic planning projection purpose will not be defeated in different sectors.
Other Hon. Members added their voices in different areas; and commending the Ministry on its clean environment, training and re-training of the staff to keep them updated on their job descriptions among others.
Earlier, the Commissioner, Mr. Mosopefolu George and the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Olayinka Ojo in the company of Directors of the Ministry, attested that the visit which was first of its kind was indeed a necessity.
During the tour, the Committee members engaged the staffers intellectually in different departments like Resilience, Planning Research and Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, among others.
In the Commissioner’s response, he noted that his Ministry prioritized international training of young officers over the seniors.
“Most times I yield my slots for the junior officers once the approval has been granted.”
However, Hon. Olumoh said the exercise cannot be concluded on that day since there are some other agencies attached to the Ministry that needs to be oversight . Saying, “this visit has helped the Members a lot.”
Other members in attendance were Hon. Kehinde Joseph , Hon . Stephen Ogundipe, Hon. Adebola Shabi, Hon. Samuel Apata, Hon. Musbau Lawal , Hon. (Prince) Adeseyi Lawal, and Hon Jimoh Orelope.
