A forensic audit firm, SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, has alleged that the Osun State Government inserted 8,452 ghost workers into its payroll, leading to an estimated annual loss of ₦13.7 billion.
According to The PUNCH, the allegation was made on Friday in Lagos by the firm’s Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, who spoke through her legal counsel, Jiti Ogunye, during a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat.
According to Bakrin-Ottun, the figures emerged from a comprehensive forensic audit and payroll validation exercise carried out for the Osun State Government, which she said exposed widespread fraud within the state’s civil and public service payroll system.
She explained that her firm was formally engaged by the state government after submitting a proposal dated January 11, 2023, and was awarded the contract through a letter dated April 11, 2023. A formal agreement was subsequently signed on May 22, 2023.
“The mandate was to conduct a holistic staff verification, payroll re-engineering and validation exercise across the civil service, local governments, SUBEB, TESCOM, state-owned tertiary institutions, as well as state and local government pensioners,” she said.
Bakrin-Ottun described the exercise as one of the most extensive payroll audits ever conducted in Osun State, noting that it was carried out between June and December 2023 with the deployment of 125 personnel, both on-site and remotely, at a cost of over ₦600 million.
She said that as of January 2023, the state’s payroll stood at ₦4.48 billion monthly, covering 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners. However, after the audit, the verified payroll was reduced to ₦3.34 billion monthly, covering 29,004 genuine staff and the same number of pensioners.
“This reduction clearly shows that 8,452 ghost workers were fraudulently inserted into the payroll, resulting in a monthly loss of ₦1.14 billion and an annual loss of ₦13.7 billion to Osun State,” she stated.
Bakrin-Ottun further alleged that the execution of the contract was fraught with challenges and security threats.
“The exercise was very challenging, life-threatening and laden with bureaucratic subversions, largely because it uncovered entrenched payroll fraud and corrupt practices,” she said.
She disclosed that the audit report and invoice were submitted to Governor Ademola Adeleke on June 27, 2024, during a private presentation in Lagos, and later at a public event in Osogbo on July 10, 2024.
Despite this, she claimed that the state government had neither implemented the report’s recommendations nor paid the agreed professional fees.
“Payment under the contract is not contingent on the implementation of the report. However, we insist that the recommendations must be implemented in the interest of transparency and accountability,” she added.
Bakrin-Ottun also rejected claims by the state government that a subsequent re-verification exercise invalidated her firm’s findings.
“The claim that our findings were exaggerated or false is reckless, malicious and defamatory. For six months, we physically verified staff across local governments and institutions, captured images and ensured no one was left out,” she said.
She called on anti-corruption agencies to investigate the matter, insisting that her firm acted solely in the public interest.
Efforts to obtain the reaction of the Osun State Government were unsuccessful.
The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Kolapo Alimi, did not respond to calls, while the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, promised to issue a statement but had not done so as of the time of filing this report.
