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 annual loss of N13.7bn.
The allegation was made by the firm’s Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, through her lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, during a press conference held on Friday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat in Lagos.
Bakrin-Ottun said the figures were uncovered during a detailed forensic audit and payroll validation exercise carried out for the Osun State Government, which she said exposed deep payroll fraud across the state’s civil and public service.
According to her, the firm was formally engaged by the state government after submitting a proposal on January 11, 2023, and was awarded the contract through a letter dated April 11, 2023. She said a formal agreement was later signed on May 22, 2023.
She explained that the contract required SALLY TIBBOT to conduct a full staff verification, payroll re-engineering and validation covering the civil service, local governments, the State Universal Basic Education Board, the Teaching Service Commission, state-owned tertiary institutions, as well as all state and local government pensioners.
She described the exercise as one of the largest payroll audits ever carried out in Osun State, aimed at confirming everyone receiving salaries and pensions from the state treasury.
Bakrin-Ottun said the audit was carried out between June and December 2023, with 125 staff deployed both physically and remotely, at a cost of over N600m.
“The execution of the contract was very challenging, life-threatening and laden with security threats and bureaucratic subversions, understandably because the audit unearthed pervasive payroll fraud and corrupt practices in the state’s salary payment system,” she said.
She disclosed that as of January 2023, Osun State was paying N4.48bn monthly to 37,456 workers and 17,918 pensioners.
However, after the audit, she said the verified payroll dropped to N3.34bn monthly, covering 29,004 genuine workers and the same number of pensioners.
According to her, the difference showed that 8,452 ghost workers had been illegally added to the payroll, causing a monthly loss of N1.14bn and a yearly loss of N13.7bn to the state.
Bakrin-Ottun said the audit report, along with the firm’s invoice, was submitted to Governor Ademola Adeleke on June 27, 2024, during a private presentation in Lagos, and later publicly presented in Osogbo on July 10, 2024.
She said despite the clear findings and contract terms which required payment within five working days of submitting the report, the state government had neither paid the agreed fees nor implemented the recommendations.
“Payment under the contract is not contingent on the implementation of the audit report. However, we insist that the recommendations must be implemented in the interest of transparency and accountability,” she said.
She added that the state government later set up an action committee led by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Kazeem Akinleye, to review the report and propose steps for implementation.
According to her, the committee claimed that 433 workers and 883 retirees identified by the firm were unreachable, with a financial implication of N55.25m.
Bakrin-Ottun rejected claims by the state government that a fresh re-verification exercise invalidated the firm’s findings, describing it as an afterthought meant to avoid payment and continue payroll fraud.
She said the contract did not allow for any re-verification after the submission of the forensic report and argued that the state government lacked the technical capacity to conduct such an exercise.
“The claim that our findings were exaggerated or false is reckless, malicious and defamatory. It seeks to impugn the integrity and professional reputation of SALLY TIBBOT,” she said.
“For six months, we moved from local government to local government and from institution to institution, physically verifying staff and capturing their images. The Osun State Government instructed all staff to be available, and orientation exercises were conducted to ensure cooperation. No one was left out,” she added.
She said the firm would now involve anti-corruption agencies to investigate the matter.
“We have no choice but to call on anti-corruption agencies to look into these issues. We are not doing this in the interest of any third party, but to ensure the implementation of our recommendations and that the state government pays us,” she said.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Osun State Government were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Kolapo Alimi, did not respond to calls. The governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, promised to issue a statement but had yet to do so.
