The Ondo state government on Sunday faced calls from financial experts and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling for the suspension of the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Pastor Emmanuel Igbasan, pending the investigation into the unfolding ourpoted budget padding.
While the opposition PDP in the state demanded the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to pry int, the purported padding, by inviting or arrest the Commissioner for budget for questioning over the alleged budget scandal.
A Financial Consultant in the state, Mr Emmanuel Ugwu, has described the purported errors discovered in the state 2024 budget figures as embarrassment to the state government and Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
Ugly who urged Aiyedatiwa not to hesitate to suspend the Commissioner for proper investigation and unravel the mystery behind the controversial N5b allocated for the renovatiin of Daycare centre in the state and determine if it’s actually an error as claimed by Igbasan.
The Budget Commissioner, Igbasan, last week claimed that “this is a regrettable Printer’s interpolation error that occurred during the process of preparing the document for publication.
“This error would have remained almost undetectable were it not for the eagle eye by (a media outfit) because the Ondo State Budget System is e-based and the correct figures are reflected on the portal as shown below (www.ondobudget.Org).
“Hence, at the operational level, this error will not materialize and almost impossible to detect. The Ministry take full responsibility for this error and we have immediately set in motion the machinery to have the error corrected,” However, the Financial Consultant, Emmanuel Ugwu, said the purported errors discovered in the state 2024 budget figures remain an embarrassment to the state government, demanding for proper investigation to matter.
He said ” I think it was not enough to just say it was an error on a whole state appropriation act.
The Governor presented the budget, the state House of Assembly passed, and yet the Commissioner did not discovered the errors. “I appeal to Governor Aiyedatiwa to suspend the Commissioner to allow investigation.
“Such errors are not pardonable. Do you know how many people go through budget? Why is it that it was a media outfit that discovered the so called error.
The Commissioner has a lot of question to answer,” Also drowning over the development, another economic expert, Dr Michael Ayoade who spoke with Nigerian Tribune, pointed out that until the Commissioner is suspended by the State Governor, nobody can know the level of compromise that had been done to the State 2024 budget.
Ayoade said, “I am also of the opinion that the EFCC should step in while Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa should suspend the Commissioner for Budget, Emmanuel Igbasan to ensure transparency in the government’s operations.
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There are more to the errors claimed by the Commissioner.” Meanwhile, the PDP spokesman, Hon. Kennedy Peretei, said “if as much as N5bn is been voted for renovation, not even building, renovation of DayCare Centres in the state, what kind of DayCare Centre are they trying to renovate? And to worsen it, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and budget said it was an error,
“What we are saying is that all those who have been involved in this process of error, despite layers of vetting and screening required of budget process, that they couldn’t site it until the media spotted it.
“We have no reason to believe that it was an error, the only thing we can believe is that it was a plan, a coordinated plan to swindle the people of Ondo State.
“We are now using the opportunity to call on the EFCC and the ICPC to move into Ondo state to help us investigate thoroughly what actually happened in this connection and whoever is involved in it, be the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, should be brought to book so that we can insulate the people from this calculated effort to rob them or defraud them.
“If the Governor is sincere about it and believes it was an error, let him start with the Commissioner of Economic Planing and Budget (Emmanuel Igbasan), let anyone who commits the error be sent home, and next time won’t make the error.
” All those associated with it should be made to face the wrath of the law so that in future we won’t have this kind of embarrassing situation,” the State PDP publicity Secretary said.
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