Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Oyo State House of Assembly, yesterday, passed N182.4billion budget variation bill into law, after reduction of N285 billion Appropriation Act signed by the immediate past governor of the state, Abiola Ajimobi, by N103 billion.
Speaker Adebo Ogundoyin said the state appropriation act was reviewed because it was unrealistic. The bill, he said, has passed third reading. The variation budget is now awaiting Governor Seyi Makinde’s assent, to become a law.
The reviewed budget was passed into law after the Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, Finance and Appropriation, Olasupo Kehinde, presented the committee’s report on the Oyo State Appropriation (Review) Bill 2019, during plenary.
The actual amount passed by the parliament is N182,389,434,405,52, out of which N98,769,034,202,03 has been allocated for recurrent expenditure and N83,620,400,203,49 for capital expenditure for the year ending December 31, 2019.
Kehinde said there was substantial justification for review of the 2019 approved budget by the executive due to paucity of funds to finance the approved budget by 100 percent.
The streamlined budget size, according to him, tends to achieve realistic budgeting in the state, which is one of the key advocacies of the financial and budgetary experts and professionals.
The lawmakers did upward and downward reviews of sectoral allocations in the budget signed by Ajimobi to arrive at the N182.4 billion variation budget.
Former governor Ajimobi had presented the budget tagged: ‘Budget of Sustainability’ to the House of Assembly on December 2018. In the appropriation act, he allocated N163.47 billion to capital expenditure and N121.53 billion to recurrent expenditure.
Meanwhile, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured a promise from the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), a television station owned by Oyo State Government, to partner the anti-graft agency to redirect the energies of the Nigerian youths against economic and financial crimes.
BCOS Executive Chairman, Dotun Oyelade, made the promise, yesterday, when he hosted the EFCC Ibadan office Zonal Head, Friday Ebelo.
Oyelade said he initiated the partnership after observing the commission’s successes in its fight against economic and financial crimes within the zone.
Ebelo, who was accompanied during the visit by the agency’s Head of Media and Publicity, Jide Jegede, said EFCC is always willing to secure partnership with relevant individuals and organisations to get its message effectively delivered to the right audience at the right time.He thanked BCOS for the assistance the commission has received from it so far.