Makinde Rejects Approved ‘Padded’ Budget, Oyo Assembly Recalls, Re-passes 2021 Budget

After the passage of N273.7 billion 2021 budget, the Oyo State House of Assembly has recalled the budget and re-passed it.

The budget which was passed on Tuesday, December 15, 2020 was recalled and represented on Friday, December 18, 2020, during plenary.

Unconfirmed reports say Governor Seyi Makinde rejected the budget due to alleged padding by the lawmakers. A development which made the lawmakers to represent the budget and reduced.

Ọ̀YỌ́ M’ÈSÌ Ọ̀RỌ̀ recalls that the Governor Seyi Makinde had presented a budget of N266.6 billion as 2021 Appropriation Bill before the House of Assembly. The House of Assembly jerked up the budget to N273.7 billion.

Comparing both, the budget earlier passed by House of Assembly was higher than what the Governor presented with the tune of N7.1 billion.

While speaking with newsmen, the Chairman, House Committee of Public Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Akeem Mustapha, said that there was nothing like padding in the budget passed on Tuesday, December 15, 2020 adding that the budget has not been presented to the Governor and no rejection or whatsoever has been reported.

He said that the House had made provision for government to obtain loans in the budget to enable it to finance the budget.

He confirmed that, the House realized that what was allocated to government as loan was high, saying that there is reason to revisit.

His words “In order to pass a budget that will be realistic, there is need to reduce the loan components already allocated in the budget, and that was what we did by representing the budget and passed again”.