The budget for the office of the Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola Office for 2015 is N18,645,514,610, according to Gboyega Oyetola, the Chief of Staff to the governor.

Speaking, Friday, while defending the budget of the Governor's Office before the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Oyetola said N6,925,000,000 is for recurrent expenditure and N11,720,514,610 for capital expenditure.

"The budget size for the year represents a 36.13 percent reduction in the size of the budget for year 2014," said Oyetola. He said the Office of the Governor proposed to raise N3,025,000,000 as revenue through tender fees, registration of contractors, capital receipts and from other sources.

According to Oyetola, N1,159,000,000 is expected to be expended on salaries, allowances and other remuneration of career officers and political office holders in the Office of the Governor, while N3,775,000,000 is expected to be spent on general administration of bureaus and agencies in the Office of the Governor, as part of overhead costs.

The payment of salaries to the Governor, the Deputy Governor, Judges, the State Independent Electoral Commission and others would gulp N2 billion.

Responding, the chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Kamil Oyedele, promised that the house would give the budget a critical and accelerated consideration and passage.

While Oyetola spoke of the 36.13 percent reduction in the Governor's Office budget, critics have slammed the governor for allegedly earmarking about 11 percent of the state's total budget to his office.

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