…As Osun Deputy Gov says ‘We are not bankrupt!’***

The Oyo State Executive Council on Tuesday approved N800 million as counterpart contribution to Oyo State Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA).

The Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr Adeniyi Farinto, made this known while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the 21st weekly state executive council meeting.

According to Farinto, the counterpart contribution is meant to attract a total of N2.97 billion from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

“This fund is required to provide for implementation of partnership for expanded water supply, sanitation and hygiene in 20 out of 33 Local Government Areas of the state, as contained in the Oyo State Investment Plan and submitted to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

“The project will work toward sustainable improvement of the water supply, sanitation and hygiene in urban, small towns and rural areas in the state.

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The commissioner further stated that the council approved that a bill to repeal the erstwhile Oyo State Fire Services Law and replace it with the Oyo State Fire Services Agency Law, be forwarded to the State House of Assembly for consideration.

“What that does essentially is to replace what was once a unit under the Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure and create a full-fledged agency under the Office of the Governor for effective monitoring,”  he explained.

The commissioner said that the decision became expedient because of fire incidents the state had witnessed in recent times.

He said the agency was to coordinate the activities of fire authorities across the length and breadth of the state.

Also, Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun, the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, said the council gave approval for online verification exercise for pensioners who were in Diaspora.

According to Olatunbosun, the council has directed the consultant in charge of the verification exercise to also capture the pensioners who are out of the country in the ongoing civil servants/ pensioners verification exercise.

In another development, the Deputy Governor of Osun, Mr Benedict Alabi,  has described as false the claim by some individuals that the state is bankrupt.

Alabi in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Olaniyi Ajibola, on Wednesday in Osogbo said those behind the claim had no single knowledge of macroeconomic theories and indices of Fiscal Sustainability Index.

The deputy governor, who noted that Osun was indebted like many other states in Nigeria, said that there was no logical parity between incurred debt and insolvency in any market economy around the world .

According to him, it is act of ignorance of a piece published by some individuals in the print media recently, where Osun was being projected as near insolvency.

Alabi said owing to the rare managerial savvy of Gov.Oyetola and his prudent nature, the adverse effects of coronavirus pandemic had not hindered the regular payment of full salaries to workers in the state, and other recurrent obligations.

He government would to continue improve the standard of living of the citizenry and providing enabling environment for their growth and safety.

”Our government remains committed to regular payment of salary and pension, as an integral part of our policy statement to make life more abundant for our people, against every pessimism from the opposition parties .

“I hope those who are skeptical about our position on the regular payment of full salaries at the inception of our administration must by now disappointed.

“It is gratifying to note that even at the peak of the pandemic, the government of Osun continued to pay salaries of workers in full and without delay.

“This is indeed a pointer to the fact that whoever is prophesising doom for our state needs to be isolated for special mental examination”, Alabi said.

The deputy governor also added that the policy of the state government on infrastructural development practically makes abandoned projects impossible.

He explained that construction of roads and other capital projects were basically Contractor- financed driven.

Alabi said that the brilliant idea was the initiative of the governor to ensure quality project delivery for the benefit of the people.

“This brilliant policy of Contractor-financed system should be adopted by the federal government, as a strategy to forestall abandoned projects across the country,’’ Alabi said.