Spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke, Mallam Olawale Rashed, has declared that public posting of the state’s budgetary performance by the state government is a demonstration of transparency and accountability in public finance, a testimony that the state leadership has nothing to hide about state finance.
Rasheed, who chided opposition activists for demonstrating laziness and lack of initiative by their fault-finding with publicly quoted budgetary performance reports, said “a government that announced its revenue and expenditure is showing honesty, openness and responsibility to the citizenry.
“For example, when Governor Adeleke said his expenditure on state security follows due process, the details were published in the budgetary performance as documented expenditures with categorisation. That implies that all security-related expenses follow due process within the confines of the state finance laws.
“When Governor Adeleke said Osun does not operate security votes in the sense that Nigerians understand it, the simple meaning is that there is no slush fund to be expended outside the purview of due process and public finance regulations. Every security-related expenditure is officially accounted for.
“ The size of such expenditures on an annual basis is determined by inflationary rates, operational requirements of security agencies, stability or otherwise of the exchange rate, frequency or otherwise of communal confrontations, expansion or contraction of state security agencies like Amotekun, and new security initiatives, among others. A government is, however, obliged to publish the spending patterns to demonstrate accountability and transparency.
“If a citizen or any opposition activist is, however, interested in the detailed breakdown of those published expenditures, the procedure is clear as openly stated in the federally enacted Freedom of Information Act. The A to Z of those expenditures can also be accessed within the FOI Act.
“It is however, laziness, mischief or ignorance to use budgetary reports freely posted to build a false narrative and a misinformation campaign. A government that has something to hide will not post its expenditure profile. Such a government will not sign up to the World Bank-moderated open budget initiative”, the Spokesperson noted.
“In Nigeria today, Governor Adeleke holds the enviable record of a governor who manages ‘security votes’ only within the purview of state finance law and public finance regulations. No amount of misinformation from Osun APC can erase that fact”, the Spokesperson concluded.
