A forensic audit report conducted by Sally Tibbot has uncovered 8,452 ghost workers in Osun State Civil Service, with over N13 billion paid annually to non-existent employees.

According to the Executive Brief and Full Audit Report presented to the Governor Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State payment roll for January 2023, covering mainstream workers and pensioners, stood at N4.48 billion. The figure was based on payments made by CHAMS for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners.

However, following a comprehensive staff audit, payroll reengineering and validation exercise by the firm, the genuine payment roll was revised downward to N3.34 billion.

The audit confirmed an actual workforce of 29,004 staff and 17,918 pensioners, revealing that 8,452 non-existent but paid workers had been added to the payroll.

The exercise, conducted from June 2022 till April 2023, resulted in monthly savings of N1.14 billion for the Osun State government, translating to an annual savings of N13.7 billion.

Speaking at a press conference, on Friday, the Legal Counsel to the firm, Jiti Ogunye, who addressed the press on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, Sa’adat A. Bakrin-Ottun, said that the essence of the press briefing was not politically motivated, but to ensure probity and accountability of public officials.

He said the auditing exercise, which cost N600 million covered the holistic staff verification /validation and audit/payroll reengineering exercise of the staff and employees of its civil service, local governments, SUBEB, TESCOM, all state-owned higher institutions of learning and all the state and local council pensioners’ with the extensive scope of the exercise covering all individuals drawing salaries and pensions from the Osun State’s coffers.

Ogunye, however, noted that since the submission of the Report to the Governor on 27th June 2024, and upon the public presentation of the Report (including findings and recommendations) at the public presentation ceremony in Osogbo on the 10th of July 2024, SALLY TIBBOT, has taken many steps to demand for the implementation of the Audit Report; and for payment for job undertaken and concluded under the Contract Agreement, but to no avail.

He, however, alleged that rather than implementing the recommendation of the consulting firm, it conducted an in-depth analysis of SALLY TIBBOT’s report via a re-verification exercise.

“SALLY TIBBOT emphatically rejected the position of Osun State government, as conveyed in their letter, stating that same was nothing but lame excuses, obligations-dodging afterthoughts and escapist sophistries- all calculated to rob SALLY TIBBOT of its just recompense for the services it dutifully, faithfully and diligently rendered to the Osun State Government, and to continue the corrupt practice of the payroll fraud,” he said.

To save the reputational damage of the firm, Ogunye urged an independent investigations on the matter by the anti-corruption agencies to not only vindicate SALLY TIBBOT, but also to prosecute and bring the perpetrators of the ongoing payroll fraud in Osun State to justice.

He said: “The journey on which SALLY TIBBOT embarked with the Osun State government over this payroll fraud discovery has been a dangerous one. There were very grave security concerns and threats to lives of SALLY TIBBOT’s Management when the exercise was being conducted. And after demands for implementation of the recommendations in the Audit Report were made following the submission of the Audit Report, the threats have been escalated.”

The spokesperson for Governor Ademola Adeleke, Mr. Olawale Rasheed,was contacted and he promised that a statement was being prepared as a reaction to the issues. However, as of the time of filing this report, the reaction was yet to be forwarded, despite reaching out to him again on it, though he kept promising that the reaction will be made available soon.