Oyo’s 2019 budget unrealistic, ambiguous ― Professionals

The Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Oyo State chapter, on Tuesday, described the state’s 2019 budget of N285.15billion as unrealistic, padded, ambiguous, urging the Governor Seyi Makinde-led the government to consider cutting down the budget by about 40 per cent.

Various speakers identified this imperative at a seminar of the APBN to review the Oyo 2019 budget, held at the Nigeria Bar Association hall, Ibadan, on Tuesday.

In their analyses, the speakers including Profession Segun Adedeji of the University of Ibadan and an accountant, Mrs Bola Oyekunle, questioned the sincerity of the former governor Abiola Ajimobi administration in presenting a budget replete with overlap, duplication of figures, unjustified allocations and project estimates without a source of financing.

Recall that the Oyo Assembly had on January 31, 2019, passed the 2019 budget into law after former governor Abiola Ajimobi had presented the appropriation bill to the Assembly on December 31, 2018.

In his review of the budget, Adedeji questioned the recurrent allocation of huge sums of money for fixed assets, construction provision, rehabilitation, overheads, the office of the governor, public building.

Lamenting poor income projection, expenditure tracking and sensitivity analysis in the budget, Adedeji called for income diversification especially with a focus on agriculture driven economic development.

Adedeji noted that the state would improve its internally generated income to fund the budget by encouraging agric-based businesses, upgrading entrepreneurial centres and vocational institutes.

Noting that it was high time the residents of Oyo State begin to see the roadmap of the Makinde-led government, Adedeji said that the state must optimise its competitive advantage in unskilled labour and natural resources.

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With close scrutiny, Adedeji noted that the Makinde-led government could cut down the current budget by about 40 per cent.

Speaking in the same vein, Mrs Bola Oyekunle urged the current government to set up a committee to look at the several areas of overlap, duplication of figures, ambiguity in the budget.

Reviewing the budget, Oyekunle questioned the basis for the increment of budget figures, especially overhead and recurrent expenditure.

She decried the non-development of the real sector while urging the government to make civil and public servants more productive by engaging and tasking them with more responsibilities.

Both speakers agreed to the imperativeness of a mop-up operation where government workers are moved to where they will be more productive.

Also speaking, Chairman of the occasion, Mr T. A. Soetan, said he was usually baffled that Ministries, Departments and Agencies budgeted money yearly to purchase vehicles.

Noting that the budget was meant to engender informed decisions, Chairman, APBN, Oyo chapter, Dr Babatunde Olatunji stressed the need for all residents of the state to be more concerned about how the budget affected them.