A forensic audit firm, Sally Tibbott Consulting Limited, has accused the Osun State Government of attempting to cover up an alleged ₦13.7 billion annual payroll fraud uncovered during an audit of the state’s civil and public service payroll system. Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Friday, the firm’s solicitor, Jiti Ogunye, said the company was engaged in April 2023 to verify and re-engineer the payroll of civil servants, local government workers, pensioners, the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) and state-owned tertiary institutions.
“Our demand is that the state government must implement the report. If anti-corruption agencies fail to act, we will petition them, and if necessary, go to court,” Ogunye stated.
The firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, disclosed that the audit uncovered 8,452 ghost workers allegedly inserted into the payroll. She said that prior to the verification exercise, Osun State’s payroll stood at ₦4.48 billion monthly, covering 37,456 workers and 17,918 pensioners.
According to her, the verification reduced the figure to a genuine monthly payroll of ₦3.34 billion for 29,004 workers and 17,918 pensioners, resulting in savings of ₦1.14 billion monthly and ₦13.72 billion annually.
Sally Tibbott Consulting further alleged that it expended over ₦600 million on the exercise, deploying 130 personnel over a 12-month period, but has yet to be paid its contract fees despite submitting its final report and invoice to Governor Ademola Adeleke in June 2024.
The firm also accused the state government of carrying out a “phony re-verification exercise” aimed at discrediting its findings.
Although the state government was reported to have claimed that most of the alleged ghost workers were subsequently verified as active staff or retirees—leaving only 1,316 untraceable—the firm rejected the assertion, describing it as “false, misleading and defamatory.”
The company called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the matter, warning that efforts to undermine its report amounted to a cover-up of payroll fraud.
“Our integrity is on the line, and so is the future of public funds in Osun State. The people deserve accountability and transparency,” the firm said.
As of press time, the Osun State Government had not issued an official response.