The Oyo State Government has discredited the report of a survey launched by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on budget transparency which placed the state at the bottom of the ladder amongst the 36 states of the federation.
Oyo State was ranked the least in the online availability of budget documents for the year 2020.
However, the state government, in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Taiwo Adisa, insisted that the state’s budget information was indeed published on the state’s website, noting that it was in line with the open and transparent government being run by Governor ‘Seyi Makinde.
According to Adisa, the Ministry of Budget and Planning published the state’s budget information on https://oyostate.gov.ng/resources/, noting that the negative rating was due to the inability of the survey sponsors to access the website at the time of verification, which he said should not amount to an indictment for the state.
The statement read: “The recent report of the State Budget Transparency Survey placed Oyo State as the least performing State on the ladder of online availability of Budget Documents for the Year 2020. The report claimed that none of the links worked. (Page 24 of the report)
“In a similar vein, it was reported on page 32 of the same report that only Oyo State did not publish the approved estimates.
“Thus, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning engaged with the researcher who was the link with the ministry in the course of fieldwork, namely Mr. Olamide Ogunlade.
“Mr. Ogunlade, during a telephone conversation, confirmed that he was able to access Oyo State Budget information on the state’s website and that he also collected hard copies of the Budget documents.
“However, if his superiors were unable to access the website during verification, that should not amount to an indictment on the state. What we expect is that they further crosscheck to ensure they get the true situation of things.
“Therefore, the rating of the state as the least performing state on online availability of budget documents for 2020 cannot be the correct picture of things.”
