Osun Assembly okays 2016 budget, appoints minority leader

Osun State House of Assembly has passed the 2016 budget estimate of N141, 276,122,240.

The lawmakers passed the appropriation bill yesterday following a motion by the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Kamil Oyedele, for its final passage at the plenary.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola had, on December 14, 2015, presented a budget estimate of N150.7 billion before the Assembly. But in another letter dated April 6, 2016, the governor wrote again to inform the Assembly of the need to readjust the budget to N137.978 billion.

The passed budget has N79.183 billion representing 56.06 per cent as recurrent expenditure and N62.093 billion representing 43.95 as capital expenditure.

Also, the recurrent revenue covers N99.468 billion representing 70.41 per cent, while the capital revenue covers N41.808 billion, representing 29.59 per cent.

The Speaker, Najeem Salaam, said on no account should the executive spend beyond the approved budget without approval of a supplementary budget by the House.

Salaam expressed the hope that the 2016 would be a better year in terms of capacity building, provision of infrastructure for the people and welfare of workers in Osun State.

He urged workers in the state to assist in the quest for revenue generation, saying the government needed to look inward for improve revenue without putting unnecessary burden on the people.