A forensic audit firm, SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, has accused the Osun State Government of inserting a total of 8,452 alleged ghost workers into the state’s payroll and paying them a sum of N13,716,914,129.28 annually.
The allegation was made by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, who spoke through the company’s legal counsel, Jiti Ogunye, at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat in Lagos on Friday.
Bakrin-Ottun said the figures emerged from a comprehensive forensic audit and payroll validation exercise conducted for the Osun State Government, which, according to her, revealed pervasive payroll fraud within the state’s civil and public service system.
However, efforts to get the state government’s comments on the allegation were unsuccessful.
The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation in the state, Kolapo Alimi, did not answer phone calls put across to him.
Similarly, Governor Ademola Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, promised to send the government’s reaction in a statement when contacted but had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.
Explaining how the figures were arrived at, Bakrin-Ottun said her firm was formally engaged by the Osun State Government following a proposal dated January 11, 2023, and was subsequently awarded the contract through a letter dated April 11, 2023, to audit and validate the state’s payroll.
According to her, a formal auditing and consulting agreement was executed on May 22, 2023, mandating the firm to carry out a holistic staff verification, payroll re-engineering and validation exercise 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 most extensive payroll audits ever undertaken in Osun State, aimed at verifying all individuals drawing salaries and pensions from the state treasury.
Bakrin-Ottun said the firm conducted the exercise between June and December 2023, deploying 125 personnel both on-site and remotely, and expending over N600m to execute the contract.
“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.
Presenting the findings, she disclosed that as of January 2023, the Osun State payroll stood at N4,483,943,105.70 monthly for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners.
