The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday approved a budget of N59, 287,974,102 for the 20 local governments and local council development areas (LCDAs).

The House gave the approval, following a debate on the report submitted by the ad-hoc committee headed by the Chief Whip, Rotimi Abiru.

The House observed that most councils and LCDAs performed poorly in the area of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), among others.

It, therefore, recommended the need to shore up their revenue generation drive to meet the needs of the people.

A breakdown of the budget showed that Ifelodun LCDA got the highest vote of N1,632,880,355.48, followed by Apapa Local Government with N1,624,051,414.28.

Agege Local Government got  N1,459,916,003; Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government, N1,557,825,411.00; Ikeja N1,001,105,683.16; Lagos Mainland N1,589,879,806.22 and Mushin Local Government Area, N1,139,863,539.33.

Submitting the report of the committee,  Abiru said  the decision to scrutinise the budget of the councils was in consonance with Section 3 of the Local Government Council Committee Law, 2007.

“Most councils and LCDAs  performed poorly in the IGR, hence their reliance on Federal Allocation.

“Their overhead estimate was  bloated to the detriment of Capital  Expenditure.”

In passing the budget, members urged the councils to explore all revenue sources and block leakages.

They also urged them to give priority to capital expenditure so as to ensure physical development at the grassroots.