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By Lukman Olabiyi
A forensic audit firm, Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited, has accused the Osun State Government under the leadership of Governor Adesola Adeleke of covering up an alleged annual payroll fraud amounting to ₦13.7 billion, following a payroll verification and re-engineering exercise it conducted for the state.
The allegation was made at a press briefing in Lagos, where the firm’s counsel, Mr. Jiti Ogunye, claimed that the audit uncovered widespread irregularities, including thousands of ghost workers and pensioners on the state payroll.
Sally Tibbot narrated that it was engaged by the Osun State Government in April 2023 to carry out a comprehensive verification, validation and forensic audit of the payroll of the state civil service, local governments, education agencies, tertiary institutions and pensioners.
According to its account, the contract, signed in May 2023, covered physical and biometric verification, payroll re-engineering and the development of an Automated Payroll Administration System (APAS).
The firm stated that as of January 2023, Osun State’s monthly payroll stood at about ₦4.48 billion for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners, but dropped to about ₦3.34 billion after the audit. It alleged that 8,452 ghost workers were fraudulently included on the payroll, resulting in a monthly saving of about ₦1.14 billion and an annual saving of ₦13.72 billion.
Sally Tibbot said it spent over ₦600 million and deployed about 130 staff during the exercise, which it said lasted several months and involved physical verification across the state. The firm added that its report was formally submitted to Governor Ademola Adeleke on June 27, 2024, and publicly presented in Osogbo in July 2024.
However, the firm alleged that since the submission of the report, the state government had neither implemented its recommendations nor paid the agreed professional fees, despite contractual provisions requiring payment within five working days of submission.
The company also accused the state government of rejecting its findings and conducting a purported “re-verification” exercise, which it said was outside the scope of the contract.
According to Sally Tibbot, the government claimed that only 1,316 workers and retirees were unverified, with a financial implication of about ₦55.3 million, a position the firm described as “false, misleading and an afterthought.”
Sally Tibbot further alleged that the rejection of its findings was aimed at avoiding payment and continuing the alleged payroll fraud, adding that its management faced threats during and after the exercise.
The firm called on anti-corruption agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), to investigate the matter.
“The people of Osun State deserve accountability and transparency in the management of public funds,” the firm said.
In a swift response, the Osun State Government debunked the allegations, describing the press briefing by Sally Tibbot as an attempt to blackmail the Adeleke administration by what it called a fraudulent audit report on the state.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. Kolapo Alimi, the government said the unusually high number of alleged ghost workers reported by the consultant necessitated a re-verification exercise.
According to the government, the exercise revealed that many of those declared as ghost workers were, in fact, legitimate employees.
The government stated that out of 8,448 workers declared as unseen by Sally Tibbot, 8,015 were confirmed as active staff, while only 433 could not be reached.
Similarly, out of 6,713 retirees declared as ghost pensioners, 5,830 were confirmed to exist, with 883 remaining unreachable. This, the government said, brought the total number of unverified workers and retirees to about 1,316.
The state government argued that the consultant’s fees were tied to the amount saved from the payroll and accused the firm of inflating figures in a bid to increase its payment. It also alleged high-handedness and maltreatment of workers during the audit process.
While insisting on its commitment to cleaning up the state payroll, the government said it could not, in good conscience, remove legitimate employees based on a flawed report. It maintained that it was within its rights to review the audit findings before implementation, citing gaps and lapses that led to the setting up of a re-verification committee.
The government disclosed that it had proposed paying the consultant based on the actual savings from the re-verification exercise.
According to the recommendations of the re-verification committee, the total annual savings from the unseen personnel amounted to about ₦27.08 million, as against over ₦1.31 billion claimed by the consultant.
The committee recommended that salaries, pensions and palliatives of the confirmed unseen workers and retirees be permanently stopped from July 2025, and that Sally Tibbot be paid ₦48.74 million, representing 159 per cent of the annual gross savings, in line with the relevant clause of the Memorandum of Understanding between both parties.
The Osun State Government said it stands by the outcome of the re-verification exercise and its decision to base payment strictly on actual savings realised from the payroll clean-up.
