LASG to spend N400 million on charter plane, 440 million on SUVs, N7 million on Diffusers etc. — Funso Doherty claims

NAIRAMETRICS

Funso Doherty, a Lagos-based chartered accountant, and politician, has claimed that the Lagos State Government (LASG) allocated in its 2023 budget N400 million for a charter plane, 440 million for SUVs, N7 million for diffusers, among other items recently approved for procurement.  

This was revealed in an open letter of public procurement addressed to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and signed by the Doherty dated 17th of November, 2023.  

In the letter, Doherty highlighted some of the procurements he expects the state government to review and explain to the public the structure of the budgetary allocation. 

• “I have had the opportunity to go through the register of public procurement awards by LASG, its ministries, Department Agencies for the second and third quarters of 2023, as reported by the Public Procurement Agency. This attached schedule highlights selected awards which, in my opinion, require greater scrutiny,” he wrote in the letter. 

He listed some of the following luxuries allocated in the budget, saying,  

• “Under the office of the Chief of Staff, procurement of a brand-new Lexus LX 600 bullet proof sport utility vehicles for use in the pool of office of Chief awarded for the total sum of N440,750,000.  
• “Replacement of liquid fragrance in the office of Mr. Governor, Lagos house Ikeja awarded for the sum of N7,475,000.  
• “In addition, Decorations for the venue of political delegates for the sum of N20,084,550  
• “Flying hours expenses for ad-hoc Charter plane by Lagos State Government awarded for the sum of 400,000,000.” 

N 69.9 billion allocated to Repair Eti Osa/ Lekki Expressway 

Furthermore, the chartered accountants also demanded that the government accounts for how it spent the exorbitant sum of N69.9 billion to repair an existing road linking Eti Osa/Lekki expressway 

• “N69,936,201,915 allocated for rehabilitation, reconstruction and upgrade of Eti Osa/Lekki Epe Expressway (phase b) from Greensprings to Abraham Adesanya in Eti Osa and Ibeju-Lekki LGA.  
• “This single award for the repair and upgrade of a section of an already existing road amounts to approximately half of the entire 2023 budget for the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure. A comprehensive and preferably independent value-for-money should be done for this contract,” he added. 
• In addition, Doherty also tasked the government to explain the N70 billion allocated for the construction of Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) commuting from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko in 2008.  

According to him, this project was supposed to be completed in 2011, but it was only partially completed until 2023. On that note, he tasked the government to evaluate the N218 billion now allocated for phase 2 of the construction.