The state governor, Ademola Adeleke, had recently signed into law the N273, 908, 997, 410, 2024 State Appropriation Bill passed by the State House of Assembly.
Presenting an analysis of the budget to journalists on Wednesday at the Government Secretariat, the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Prof. Ademola Adeleke, also said a sum of N82, 361, 903, 000 representing 30.07 per cent of the recurrent expenditure would be expended on payment of salaries and retirement benefits of pensioners.
Reacting to allegations that a sum of N11bn was budgeted for meals and entertainment for the Offices of the Governor and Secretary to the State Government, Adeleke dismissed the claim as untrue.
He said, “The claim that N11bn was budgeted for the office 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, the Bureau 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 is that amount that was added to N8bn to make N11bn that they claimed. Only N102bn was allocated for meals and entertainment for that office.”
