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Oyo State Government has disclosed that it plans to set a January to December for budget cycle for the state in order to ensure easy planning, implementation and evaluation by the government and the people of the state.
The Secretary to the State government(SSG), Mrs Olubamiwo Adeosun disclosed this in her keynote address at a one-day sensitisation workshop on year 2020 budget in Ibadan.
Adeosun, who emphasized the need to promote strategic planning with the budgeting system, said the workshop was essential to educate and sensitise key officers in charge of budget on the need to focus on transparency in the budget process, which she maintained would ensure the realisation of the four-point development agenda of the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration.
She described budget as the financial mirror of government policies derived from strategic planning and enunciated to achieve developmental goals for the citizenry. The SSG called on the officers to see themselves as businessmen who should be all out to make profit on behalf of every citizen of the state.
Her words:”The budget is an economic and financial management instrument for allocating resources in order to achieve developmental objectives in an inclusive and sustainable manner and government primarily exists to provide livelihood for the populace, government is thus duty bound to provide quality service and public goods in the principle of equity and inclusiveness.
“To achieve this, there is a need to promote strategic planning and introduce best practice into our budgeting system and to make this happen, we have to set a benchmark for easier evaluation of the budget and January to December will be the target.”
Adeosun stated that the present administration’s decision to create the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning was driven by the need to have a budgeting system that would be open and highly inclusive.
“This administration is entrenching the principle of budget realism going forward in 2020. Our failure to perform well in budget execution has long been hinged on the weak link between policies, plans and budget. Hence the decision of this administration to create a Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning,”she said.
Also speaking, the Head of Service, Alhaja Ololade Agboola pointed out that the era of what she termed humongous and extravagant budget was over as the proposed 2020 budget would not only focus on the four cardinal principles and policies of the present administration which were education, health, security and economy but would also ensure its efficiency and effectiveness in other to deliver the dividends of democracy to the entire citizens of the state.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Barr. Adeniyi Farinto also reiterated that the government would begin January to December budget cycle, starting with the year 2020 budget.
He explained that this will ensure easier evaluation and monitoring of budget by the populace, noting that when a budget runs into the other year, it makes it very difficult to track, monitor and evaluate government’s performance.
He assured that by December 31, the year 2020 budget would have been presented, screened and passed by the State House of Assembly and also assented to by the governor.