CSOs demand release of Osun controversial staff audit report

From Lateef Dada, Osogbo

A coalition of civil societies in Osun State, The Osun Masterminds (TOM), has demanded the release of a controversial report of staff audit that has generated arguments between the government and the contractor, Sally Tibbot.

While the firm alleged that its report discovered thousands of ghost workers with over 13 Billion being stolen annually, the state government faulted the report, describing the firm as incompetent.

Speaking at a monthly state address in Osogbo yesterday, the Executive Director of TOM, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, challenged the government of Ademola Adeleke to make the report available for the people of the state.  Noting that the group raised several alarms over the highhandedness of the firm’s director and her poor handling of the entire audit process in August 2023, the group said “appointees and stakeholders of the Adeleke government received our counsel with disdain and dismissed us as mere busybodies. We are here today and the chicken has come home to roost.

“The state government insisted on keeping her on the contract, against all counsel, and against all obvious mishandling of the contract. We are here today, dealing with the consequences of that poor judgment. We must remind the public what our concerns were when the staff audit process was ongoing.

“Since the state could not use the Automated Payroll Administration System (APAS) that the government paid N79m for, who will take responsibility for such wastefulness and financial impropriety? Should government procurement also be so flippant that we pay several millions in taxpayer funds for an item that we can just simply discard?”