8,452 ghost workers uncovered in Osun

Adeleke

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. Punch