THE 2019 appropriation bill of Oyo State to the tune of N285,151,248,190.48 was, on Thursday, passed into law with the state Assembly decrying the below average performance of Ministries, Departments and Agencies in generating revenue internally, in the past year.
Contained in a report of the appropriation committee on the 2019 budget as presented by its Chairperson, Honourable Bolanle Agbaje, the Assembly said the MDAs attributed the handicap to difficulties in getting required logistics and running grants for monthly operations.
The report, particularly, pointed to serious complaints by MDAs, during budget defence, about bureaucratic bottlenecks in getting approval for the execution of their programmes.
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For an improved performance of the 2019 budget, the Assembly urged the executive arm of government to release rebate all its revenue generating MDAs as an incentive to boost internal revenue generation.
Calling for rigorous revenue drive, the Assembly tasked the executive arm to deal with tax defaulters, in accordance with provisions of the law.
The approved budget covers a recurrent of N121,619,813,614.24 and capital expenditure of N163,531,434,576.24, and is an upward review of N151.2 million from the N285 billion presented by Governor Abiola Ajimobi on December 31, 2018.
Furthermore, the Assembly led by Honourable Olagunju Ojo, lamented that recurrent industrial actions embarked upon by the state-owned tertiary institutions had resulted in brain drain of experienced academic staff while student enrolment had dropped significantly.
To prevent perennial labour crisis in its tertiary institutions, epitomised by backlog of salary arrears, the Assembly urged the state government to ensure 100 percent payment of subventions.
In particular, the state government was charged to provide necessary logistics for the College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora for the institutions to have some of its courses accredited thereby being able to access TETFund.
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Also, the Assembly bemoaned the underfunding of the Local Government Staff Pensions Board that had resulted in nonpayment of about 50 months of pensions to retired primary school teachers and staff of local government.
While applauding government for releasing funds to the pension board from time to time, the Assembly called for an increase in funding so as to offset backlog of gratuity arrears.
In addition, the Assembly expressed worry that the 2012-2016 promotion conducted and letters issued was yet to be backed with financial benefits, while the periodic staff audit was inconclusive and had reduced staff strength.
In health, the Assembly urged the executive to intensify effort in the implementation of Health Insurance Scheme to engender quality health delivery.
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