Kwara ex-commissioner, Odewale,  disagrees with Gov Abdulrazaq over missing 2019 budget on website

…says published budget qualifies state for $15m

Stories by Matthew Denis

The immediate past Kwara State Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Alhaji Wasiu Odewale has described as false, the alleged  pulling down from online the   2019 budget  by former governor Abdulfattah Ahmed’s government.
The present administration of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq  had alleged that the erstwhile government pulled down the budget online shortly before expiration of its tenure.
This came on the heels of the report by budgiT, a civil right group that budget for the state for the year was missing  from the website.
But in a swift reaction, the Kwara State Government faulted  the report  by BudgIT, a civic group, that the 2019 budget, insisting that the budget document has since been restored to the website after the IT consultant engaged by the previous administrations pulled it down.
“Our attention has been drawn to a recent press statement issued by the civic group BudgIT in which it claimed that the 2019 budget of the Kwara State Government has been pulled down upon the swearing in of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq,”Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, had said in a  statement on Friday.
“The claim that the budget document was pulled down was first made by BudgIT on June 10, 2019. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the web master employed by the previous government did indeed pull down the document along with some others in the unacceptable guise of reflecting the coming of a new administration. This was done shortly before Governor AbdulRazaq was sworn in. So, the new administration wasn’t behind the removal of the document.
“The webmaster was however directed to immediately restore the document. That was done on June 10 – the same day that allegation was raised — , clearly demonstrating good faith on the part of the new government.
“The new administration believes government is a continuum and pulling down the contents of a Government website amounted to unacceptable attempt to erase history.
“However, we are disturbed by the fact that BudgIT, in its report this week, still claimed that the Kwara State budget document is down from the website. We expected that a body that urges due diligence failed to acknowledge the fact that the Kwara budget document had since been restored. Our worry is worsened by the fact that BudgIT has a history of misrepresenting facts on Kwara.
But, Odewale added that the 2019 budget as published has qualified the state  for $15million from FSTAP-World Bank Program for Result.
“And, before the middle of July the state will be given  $2 million for publishing that budget. So, how can they say it was  removed. They are just telling the public lies. The former government emphasised that the state will be benefiting such huge amount from a certain programme.”
” The 2019 budget is already published online and everybody has access to it so they can’t remove it. BudgIT is in charge and apart from the online we even have the hardcopy printed and distributed to all the ministries and parastatals, so how can they remove it?
” The budget is online and that has qualified Kwara State for more than $15million, it was done in such a way that this administration will benefit, so we were concerned about Kwarans not individual. So what they are insinuating is a complete lie.”