Osun Assembly Adopts Amended 2018 Budget Estimates Report

By Isral Afolabi

The State of Osun House of Assembly has adopted the amended 2018 budget estimates report presented by the House committee on Finance and Appropriation.

The Speaker of the parliament, Dr Najeem Salaam made this known on Monday during a report presentation of the  committee on the consideration of the year 2018 appropriation bill of the state of Osun at the State House of Assembly, Osogbo.

This follows the motion for adoption by the leader of the House, Hon. Timothy Owoeye and seconded by a member representing Egbedore State constituency, Hon. Abiodun Awolola respectively.

However, presenting the report, the chairman of the committee, Hon Kamil Oyedele said the revenue estimate has been increased as well as the capital expenditure following the amendment made during the budget defence by Ministries and Agencies of government.

Oyedele explained that the 2018 budget estimate has been increased by N2.4 billion making the total estimate to be a little over N176billion from N173.9billion.

The committee through the report suggested that the budget should be revenue-driven by identifying new sources of revenue as well as blocking all leakages.

The committee also called for speedy process of acquiring certificate of occupancy (C of O) to encourage land owners apply for C of O thereby increasing revenue generation for the government.

The report attracted comments from lawmakers who in their separate remarks pointed out some areas for scrutiny and some errors that need to be corrected.

According to him, “the state need a law that would fast-track acquisition of C of O”.

In their separate contributions, the lawmakers stressed the need for aggressive revenue generation drive to help finance the budget.

They urged the House to intervene in a way to ease the process of certificate of occupancy (C of O) which they described as a viable means of revenue generation.

In his remark, the speaker emphasised the importance of collective efforts and responsibilities to ensure the success of the budget.

He also observed the need to fast track the process of issuance of C of O by the executive.

He said, “The only way out of the bottleneck is to have an operational guideline that would set time limit for the process”.