Osun State governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, on Saturday welcomed the call by a consulting firm, Sally Tibbot Limited, on the anti-corruption agencies to review the controversial Osun State staff audit report.

It is recalled that the firm had reportedly accused the state government of failing to implement its recommendations on a submitted report which allegedly uncovered 8,452 ghost workers.

The firm also decried the review of its report by a committee constituted by Adeleke’s administration which faulted the report, pointing out that the state government was not ready to pay the cost of N600 million being cost of the staff audit. The report was submitted on June 27, 2024.

However, while responding the issue in a terse statement by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, the governor said both the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are free to review the audit report, saying “what they will be checking and reviewing was the inherited payroll and personnel list from the Oyetola’s administration.”

The statement reads, “Our administration did not and has not expanded the personnel and payroll structures inherited from the last administration. Moreover, what was audited was the payroll and personnel structure under Oyetola’s administration.

Adeleke, who said he should be commended for not accepting the recommendations of the consultant to lay off legitimate workers for the consultant’s personal gain, stressed that “we stop likely fraud even while pushing to clean up the system.

“We therefore welcome the call on the EFCC and the ICPC to review the audit report submitted by Sally Tibbot. Let the Oyetola administration officials braze up for the exercise.

Earlier on Friday, the state Commissioner for Information and Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, in a statement, debunked allegations of alleged cover up of ghost workers’ indictment within the state public service by Sally Tibbot Limited, describing the press briefing by the company as a subtle blackmail to force a fraudulent staff audit report on the state.

The state government said the unusual high numbers of alleged ghost workers by the consultant led to a re- verification exercise which shockingly revealed extensive inflation of the supposed number of ghost workers and which showed that those the company claimed were ghost workers showed up that they were legitimate employees of the state government.

According to the statement, “Government further proposed to furnish the company with proof of the existence of each of these workers, if the same is required. However, the company did not at any point in time request for such proof nor send an acceptance letter for payment based on about 1,316 workers who were not seen.

“The government noted that the entire saga became more suspicious, especially as company’s fees was based on the amount of money she saves the State government on the payroll, indicating that the company’s claim was based on greed especially going by the consultant’s high handedness, open exclusion of staff during auditing process and deliberate maltreatment of workers that characterised the entire audit processes.”