WITH a promise to raise the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and make the state less dependent on financial handouts from the Federation Account, the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday made an N88,143,131,600.00 proposal to the House of Assembly for consideration as the 2011 Appropriation Act.

Aregbesola, who halved the overhead cost in the Office of the Governor from N5, 027 billion to N2, 760 billion, said the size of the 2011 Budget was N27.35 billion short of the 2010 Budget estimate of N114, 489,750,324.00.

Presenting the budget estimate yesterday, the governor said that his administration had no belief in a bogus and unrealisable budget, explaining that the trimming of the budget size was informed by his desire to attain the vision and aspirations of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-led administration in the State of the Living Springing.



The budget speech was read on the floor of the State House of Assembly by the Majority leader, Tajudeen Adeyemi on behalf of the governor, who was out of the country.

The recurrent estimate comprise of N71,099,515,610.00, representing 80.66 per cent of the budget, while the capital estimate stood at N17,043,615,990.00, representing 19.34 per cent of the total budget size.

Said Aregbesola: “Our own administration believes more in a lean, quality, realisable and achievable budget rather than a bloated budget which is based on unrealisable projections.

“The size of the allocation to overheads in the Office of the Governor which initially stood at N5,027,880,000.00 has been slashed down to N2,760,180,000.00.”