Date: 2019-06-28

Kwara State Government has faulted a report this week by BudgIT, a civic group, that the 2019 budget of the state government is missing from the website.

The government insisted 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," press secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, 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. A few persons have linked such to the fact that some BudgIT staff were at some point foot soldiers of the now dead political dynasty. An organisation like BudgIT, which claims fidelity to fact and data, should avoid actions that may lead to such insinuations.

"Finally, we wish to state that the Kwara State Government under Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has nothing to hide in its determination to build a new state that would be the pride of all the indigenes and residents."