Ondo assembly passes 2022 OSOPADEC budget into law

Ondo State House of Assembly on Thursday passed into law the 2022 estimate of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) put at N11.4 billion.

This followed the submission and consideration of the joint report of the House Committees on Finance and Appropriation as well as OSOPADEC at plenary.

The Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Mr Sunday Olajide explained that the proposal for personnel cost was increased from N1.3 billion to N1.5 billion, while project development rose from N5 billion to N6 billion.

He recommended that all ongoing projects should get the needed attention with a view to ensuring their quick completion.

The Majority Leader, Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi moved the motion for the bill to be passed into law and it was seconded by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Samuel Aderoboye.

The Speaker, Mr Bamidele Oleyelogun ruled for the bill to be passed into law after the lawmakers gave their nods through voice vote.

Oleyelogun charged OSOPADEC to ensure proper distribution of funds in the estimate for the benefit of the people in the mandate area.

Also the house cleared outstanding issues and queries raised in the 2015 to 2018 report of the state Auditor-General after the submission and consideration of reports of the House Committee on Public Account.

Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Mr Festus Adefiranye said the affected accounting officers were not on top of their jobs and failed to put in place a proper record-keeping system in their various establishments.

Adefiranye said that the documents they provided had justified the actions of the Auditor-General/Public Account Committee, (PAC).

He said that if they had made them available to the Auditor-General’s office on time, there would have been no reason for the queries.