A forensic audit firm, Sally Tibbott Consulting Limited, has accused the Osun State Government of covering up a ₦13.7 billion annual payroll fraud uncovered during its audit of the state’s civil and public service payroll system.
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 covering civil servants, local government workers, pensioners, SUBEB, 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 CEO, Ms. Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, said the audit revealed 8,452 ghost workers fraudulently added to the payroll. Before the exercise, Osun’s payroll stood at ₦4.48 billion monthly for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners. After verification, the genuine payroll was reduced to ₦3.34 billion, reflecting 29,004 staff and 17,918 pensioners—saving ₦1.14 billion monthly and ₦13.72 billion annually.
The company alleged it spent over ₦600 million on the exercise, deploying 130 staff over 12 months, but has not been paid its contract fees despite submitting its final report and invoice to Governor Ademola Adeleke in June 2024. It further accused the government of conducting a “phony re-verification exercise” to discredit its findings.
While the state government reportedly claimed that most of the alleged ghost workers were later confirmed as active staff or retirees—leaving only 1,316 untraceable—the firm dismissed the claim as “false, misleading and defamatory.”
Sally Tibbott called on the EFCC and ICPC to investigate the matter, warning that attempts to discredit its work 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.