LAGOS NEWS:
Sanwo-Olu Grants Hamzat, Egube and Ayinde Financial Autonomy

Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has decided to avoid one the pitfalls of his immediate predecessor by granting his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Samuel Egube and his Chief of Staff, Mr Tayo Ayinde financial autonomy.

Governor Sanwo-Olu in a Circular No. MEPB/B/2019/1, titled, Delegation of Financial Authority and Approvals, signed by Mrs Abiola Adetutu Liadi, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget and addressed to all ministries, departments and agencies.

According to the circular, the deputy governor now has authority to approve expenditure and payment for a recurrent expenditure to the limit of N2.5 million.
For capital projects, the deputy governor’s expenditure and payment approval limit is N5 million.

The governor also gave his deputy the authority to approve expenditure and payment limit of N50 million for milestone capital projects.

In the case of the commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, his expenditure and payment approval limit for recurrent expenditure is also N2.5 million while his expenditure and payment approval limit for capital projects is N10 million.

The Chief of Staff on the other hand has an expenditure and payment approval limit of N500,000. He however has a unlimited expenditure and payment approval authority when it comes to the governor and the deputy’s travel expenses for both local and international.

What this mean in essence is that the ministries, departments and agencies with expenditure within these payment limits will either go to the deputy governor or the commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget for approval.