OSUN BUDGETS N88.1B FOR 2011

AFTER one month of taking oath of office, Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, on Wednesday evening, presented his first budget totalling N88.1 billion to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

In the budget speech, which was read to the lawmakers on behalf of the governor by the Majority Leader, Tajudeen Adeyemi, he noted that the budget, which was packaged by his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was slightly reviewed to reflect the vision of the new administration.

In a review of the implementation of the 2010 budget, Aregbesola recalled that a N114.469 billion budget approved by the House and reviewed at the end of the third quarter of the year, put the total revenue collected from all sources at N51.4 billion.

The figure, he added, 'also includes the unwarranted loan of N18.3 billion by the former administration sometimes in June this year.'

After appraising the 2010 budget, Aregbesola then presented a budget of N88.1 billion to the assembly for consideration and approval.

The governor told the house that since he took office, all that his administration 'had done was to modify the existing draft of 2011 budget prepared by the illegitimate administration whose term of office was terminated on November 26, 2010 by the verdict of the Court of Appeal.'

The size of the budget prepared by Oyinlola administration for 2011 fiscal year, he explained, was N108,079,285,735.00.

He said that his 'administration believes more in a lean, quality, realistic and achievable budget rather than a bloated budget which is based on unrealistic projections.'