A forensic audit firm, SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, has accused the Osun State Government of including 8,452 alleged ghost workers on its payroll, resulting in an estimated annual loss of N13.7 billion.
The claim was made by the firm’s Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, through the company’s legal representative, Jiti Ogunye, at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat in Lagos on Friday.
Bakrin-Ottun explained that the figures emerged from a comprehensive forensic audit and payroll validation exercise commissioned by the Osun State Government, which, according to her, uncovered widespread payroll fraud across the state’s civil service and public institutions.
Attempts to obtain responses from the state government were unsuccessful. Kolapo Alimi, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, did not answer phone calls, while Governor Ademola Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, promised a statement but had yet to respond by the time of reporting.
Details of the Audit
Bakrin-Ottun stated that SALLY TIBBOT was formally engaged by the state following a proposal dated January 11, 2023, and awarded the contract via letter on April 11, 2023. A formal agreement executed on May 22, 2023, mandated the firm to conduct holistic staff verification, payroll re-engineering, and validation across the civil service, local governments, the State Universal Basic Education Board, Teaching Service Commission, state-owned tertiary institutions, and all pensioners.
The audit, conducted between June and December 2023, involved 125 personnel and cost over N600 million. Bakrin-Ottun described the exercise as one of the most extensive payroll audits in the state, noting it faced security threats and bureaucratic challenges due to its exposure of pervasive fraud.
Findings
The audit revealed that as of January 2023, the Osun State payroll amounted to N4.48 billion monthly for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners. After verification, the payroll was adjusted to N3.34 billion monthly for 29,004 genuine staff, maintaining the same number of pensioners.
The audit concluded that 8,452 ghost workers had been added fraudulently, resulting in a monthly loss of N1.14 billion and an annual loss of N13.7 billion.
Bakrin-Ottun said the audit report and accompanying invoice were submitted to Governor Adeleke on June 27, 2024, first privately in Lagos and later publicly in Osogbo on July 10, 2024. She added that the state government has neither implemented the recommendations nor paid the professional fees, which are contractually due within five working days of submission.
The firm also rejected claims by a state action committee that 433 staff and 883 retirees were unreachable, calling the re-verification exercise an afterthought aimed at evading payment. Bakrin-Ottun argued that the government lacked the expertise to independently verify the audit and described the denial of findings as reckless and defamatory.
She urged anti-corruption agencies to investigate the matter, emphasizing that the call is to ensure transparency, accountability, and enforcement of the audit recommendations, not in favor of any third party.
