The Osun State Government says that the offices of the governor and secretary to the government were allocated N702 million for meals and entertainment in 2024.

The Commissioner for Budget, Professor Ademola Adeleke, disclosed this during budget analysis in Osogbo.

Adeleke debunked the insinuation that N11billion was allocated to meals and entertainment.

He said about N8billion was allocated for the total recurrent expenditure in the Office of the Governor comprising the governor, deputy and Chief of Staff office, Bureau of General Services, the Bureau of Government House and Protocol, Bureau of Parastatal and Bureau of Social Services.

The commissioner added that only N600million out of the N8billion was allocated for meals and entertainment.

He said about N3billion was allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government out of which, N102million was allocated to meals and entertainment.

The claim that N11billion was budgeted for the offices of the governor and that of the SSG for meals and entertainment is a blatant lie. It is not correct in any way.

“The office of the governor comprises about seven different agencies, like the office of the deputy governor, the office of the chief of staff, the bureau of general services, bureaus of government house and protocol, and the bureau of parastatals.

“All these sub-agencies are referred to as the office of the governor. That is the entire conglomerate of the office of the governor that was allocated about N8billion for total recurrent expenditure, out of which only N600million is for meals and entertainment.

“The Office of the SSG has a total recurrent of about N3billion. It is that amount that was added to N8billion to make the N11billion that they claimed. Only N102million was allocated for meals and entertainment for the office,” he said.

Meanwhile, Adeleke disclosed that out of the 273.9 billion 2024 budget, education sector was allocated N38.9 billion, making 14.21 per cent, infrastructure sector got N57.2 billion, which is 20.89 per cent, and human capital development sector got 39.2 billion, which is 14.34 per cent of the total budget.

In December 2023, SaharaReporters exclusively reported how N6billion was spent by Adeleke to run the “Office of the Governor” in three months.

According to a copy of the state budget performance report between July-September 2023, the amount is different from the N209 million spent on personal expenditure in the governor’s office.