Contrary to news making the rounds that N11 billion was allocated as entertainment fund to the offices of the Governor and that of the Secretary to the Government, the Osun State Government has clarified it only allocated N702 million to the two offices.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Professor Moruf Adeleke, while addressing journalists yesterday during the 2024 budget analysis at the Ministry of Finance building, said only N600 million was earmarked for meals and entertainment for the office of the governor.
He added that meals and entertainment for the office of the Secretary to the State Government got about N102 million against the N11billion being spread by mischief makers for the two heads.
“The claim that N11 billion was budgeted for the offices of the governor and that of the SSG, for meals and entertainment is a blatant lie. It is not correct in any way.
“The office of the governor comprises about seven different agencies like office of the Deputy Governor, the office of the Chief of Staff, the Bureau of General Services, Bureaus of Government House and Protocol, Bureau of Parastatals. All these sub-agencies are referred to as the office of the governor. That is the entire conglomerate of the office of the governor that was allocated about N8 billion for total recurrent out of which only N600 million is for meals and entertainment.
“Office of the SSG has a total recurrent of about N3billion, it got about N102million for meals and entertainment. It is that amount that was added to N8 billion to make N11billion that they claimed”, he said.
Meanwhile, Professor Adeleke disclosed that out of the N273.9billion 2024 budget, education sector was allocated N38.9billion making 14.21 percent, infrastructure sector got N57.2billion, which is 20.89 percent and human capital development sector got 39.2billion, which is 14.34 percent of the total budget.
The Commissioner added that N24.2billion was allocated to governance and administration sector, which is 8.85 percent of the total budget, health sector got N23.1 billion, 8.45 percent while the agriculture sector got 1.39 percent, making N3.8billion.
“Overall, salary/wages take N45,817,225,280 (16.73 percent); pension/gratuity takes N36,544,677,720 (13.34 per cent) making N82,361,903,000, (30.07 per cent), other recurrent expenditure includes overhead, which takes N54,020,730,880 (19.72 per cent).”
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
