A review of the budget performance documents of South-West states for 2024 has shown that three states spent N1.6billion on honorarium and sitting allowances in the nine-month period of between January and September 2024.
This is even as the sampled states budgeted more for honorarium and sitting allowances in the new year.
The states reviewed for this report included; Osun, Ekiti and Ondo States.
For instance, review shows that Ekiti state spent N766.3 million for honorarium between January and September, 2024.
In Osun State, honorarium and sitting allowances took N764.3 million, while the sum spent in Ondo State stood at N111.9 million.
In total, the three states spent N1.642 billion on honorarium and sitting allowances between January and September, 2024.
In 2025, the Osun State government plans to spend N1.6billion on honorarium and sitting allowances. The state also plans to spend N2.5billion on refreshment and meals in 2025.
This development is even as the states are also planning to spend substantially for refreshment and meals on the coming 2025 fiscal year, for instance, the Ondo State House of Assembly and it is commission plans to spend N70 million on refreshment and meals on 2025, they also plan to spend N200 million on international travels (training and others).
All the developments come amid concerns on the paucity of revenue available to state governments.
States have overtime lamented inadequacy of revenue, relying heavily on federally distributed allocation and loans to meet their fiscal demands.
In turn, the respective states government spend heavily servicing debts which are blamed for further worsening the fate of states in terms of availability of revenue across board.
There have been also been concerns over probity and accountability in the management of resources by states government.
States in the country also suffer from basic needs such as healthcare, water, education, good roads among others.
