- We Are Undeterred – Govt
Former Commissioner for Finance in Osun, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro has said that the government of the state has contradicted its earlier claim that the state received zero allocation.
Bolorunduro, in a statement he released at the weekend, said the Director General of the Debt Management Office, Tunde Adejumo exposed the fact that Osun did not get negative net receipt as January allocation as earlier claimed by the government.
“I am happy the current government of Osun has owned up to their previous covert operation of giving false information to the social media journalists on its loan figures and monthly loan repayment.
“Through their official response to the part I of my article out of the three- part publication, without knowing that I had done breakdown analysis of their monthly loan repayment deductions on the items, in the part II, so rather than waiting to see the expository, they rushed out without covering their rare,” he said
He said the law that set up the Osun DMO was a sponsored Bill under his tenure as a Commissioner of Finance and it requires the DG to publish the public debt of the state.
He queried, “So, why not publish it for the past three (3) years especially, when the loan figure of 141billion naira given to the public by Chief Gboyega Oyetola during the 2018 Governorship Debate, changed to your fathomed 200billion naira?
“Do you think anybody will take you serious for just throwing figure around. “I have accused you and the current government of doing fuzzy mathematics with Osun public debt figure.”
Bolorunduro said Adejumo exposed himself as the purn in the game to sex-up the loan figure so as to stain Aregbesola.
He also alleged that the purpose of the alleged sexed-up figures is to serve as soft landing for the current government, which he said is currently facing election and the needs to give account of his stewardship.
For Tunde Adejumo to use Gross Statutory allocation, which is not the only revenues from federation accounts as basis for his net negative receipting January is not only grossly irresponsible but it shows the act of perfidy, which has become the hallmark of the current Osun government.
He demanded, “What of VAT revenue of the state? Just because you wanted to show that you received negative allocation, you left out VAT revenue that average 500million naira monthly, in the last twelve (12) months? Why is the DG DMO dissembling and does he think everybody is a fool and will not know VAT is part of the revenues or monthly receipt and if the VAT revenue is added, there will not be negative receipt anywhere because what comes in is net.”
He said Adejumo has exposed the current Osun government by what he called “this deliberate error of commission that net receipt from federation accounts is not negative.”
He added, “One day, they may tell us local government allocation is zero allocation and so we better start asking them to swear under the oath that LG revenues from federation account is less than 3billion naira monthly in the last three (3) months.”
Bolorunduro added that in the last three years of Oyetola, there have been many approvals that have not been cash-backed.
“Will you be adding them to Oyetola’s loan portfolio? This reductionist approach is not sustainable and will not remove the issue, which is if Oyetola loan figure has gone up to 200billion naira from 171 billion naira (141 domestic loan confirmed by him and the 30 billion external loan), it must have gone up, solely under the present Governor Oyetola and his DG DMO.”
The former commissioner said that the state government would need to look for something else to make its alleged cooked up figures add up.
Responding however, incumbent Commissioner for Finance, Bola Oyebanji, said Bolorunduro’s sole aim is to distract the Oyetola administration.
He said Bolorunduro belongs to The Osun Progressives camp of the All Progressive Congress in Osun noting that the former Commissioner seeks to set the Governor and his government against the people of the state.
In a statement by the commissioner, he accused Bolorunduro of “unsubstantiated lies.”
The Finance Commissioner said, “It is needless because, it was a feeble attempt to draw the current government into the arena of a self-destructive drama of verbal war, the hallmark of the splinter group in the All Progressives Congress (APC) to which Bolorunduro belongs. It is equally ill-motivated considering the prevailing political calculations within the State. Since the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was concluded, in which His Excellency, Governor Gboyega Oyetola emerged as the candidate of our party, attempts are been made to distract the current government from her core mandate; the security and welfare of the good people of Osun. Unfortunately, a million dramatic series of lies from Dr Bolorunduro will not distract us; we remain committed as a government.
“To the unsubstantiated lies presented by Bolorunduro with regards to the loan repayment figures of the State laced with an attempt to emotively pitch the current government against the last government, to the effect that projects initiated by the last government have been abandoned and the untidy accusation of a cover-up of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) figures, below are my responses.”
Saying that governance is a continuum, Oyebanji explained that the Oyetola administration had continued with the legacy projects of his predecessor.
“Firstly, government is a continuum and the current government, based on her financial capacity, has continued to drive many programmes and projects inherited from the last government with a touch of restructuring and improved capacity. For instance, the Oba Adesoji Aderemi road project has moved beyond where it was in 2018 to about 75% completion; the Gbogan-Akoda road has been pushed to 40% completion; the Osogbo-Ila-Odo road is progressing well (up to 60% completion); the Ilesa-Iperindo-Ipetu-Ijesa road project now stood at close to 65% completion among others. Also, legacy programmes such as the OMEAL (the school feeding programme), O-Ambulance (the ambulatory services programme), OYES (the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme) and many others have been reinvigorated to the satisfaction of the good people of Osun as demonstrated by their continued support to the current Governor. Therefore, the unsubstantiated claim of project or programme abandonment falls flat on its face. This outright falsehood has not yielded any gain to its purveyors in the past, and it will certainly not this time.”
He said the government would not be deterred.