Phebe Falodun
The Ogun State government has admitted allocating nearly N1 billion to three non-operational ministries in its 2024 budget, explaining that the funds were set aside to ensure readiness for their eventual establishment.
This admission follows an exclusive report by PLATFORM TIMES, which revealed that the state had budgeted N922,169,997.11 for the Ministries of Energy, Mineral Resources, and Regional Integration, which do not yet exist.
In response to the report, in a statement signed by Olaniyi Ajibola, Senior Special Assistant on Strategy Communications, the government admitted that it gave allocation to the purported Ministries.
Apparently rattled by PLATFORM TIMES, the government resorted to name-calling and labelling of our report as “fake news.”
The government explained that the Budget Ministry gave the allocation to the purported Ministries in order to make use of when they become operational.
However, the statement was silent on whether or not those purported Ministries are in operation.
“The fact of the matter is that about a year ago, during the swearing-in of members of his cabinet, Governor Abiodun announced the plan to establish the Ministries of Mineral Resources, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Digital Economy, and Energy. Subsequently, machinery was set in motion to bring these ministries on stream.
“The Budget Ministry, in a bid to ensure that the ministries, once operational, will have a budget head where they can source money instead of resorting to contingency funding, made budgetary provisions for them to smoothen their operations, as it is its duty to do. A budget, as even the layman knows, is a projection, a financial proposal for specific fiscal year,” the statement partly reads.
“The budget that PLATFORM TIMES referenced with glee is just a proposal meant to ensure that once operational, the ministries do not have to engage in funding through contingency because the government made provisions for them based on the expectation that they would begin operations as earlier scheduled,” Ajibola said.
The exclusive report by PLATFORM TIMES uncovered the allocations through an examination of the Ogun State Government’s approved budget document for 2024, available on the Nigerian state governments’ open data portal, https://openstates.ng/ogun/dataset/1722/ogun-state%20approved%20budget%20document%20for%20the%20year%202024.
This revelation has sparked discussions about fiscal responsibility and the state government’s approach to budgeting for future projects.
While some critics have questioned the prudence of allocating funds to ministries that are not yet operational, the government maintains that the move reflects forward planning aimed at avoiding financial hiccups once the ministries commence operations.
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