The Osun State Government has launched a fierce rebuttal against claims it is covering up ghost workers, instead accusing the audit firm hired to clean its payroll of attempting a massive fraud by grossly inflating the number of non-existent staff.
Government Alleges Deliberate Inflation for Financial Gain
In a detailed statement, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kola Alimi, described a recent press conference by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd as an act of blackmail. The government's position is that the firm is trying to force the acceptance of a fraudulent audit report. Alimi stated that the consultant's fee was tied to the amount of money supposedly saved for the state, creating a direct incentive to exaggerate findings.
The controversy stems from an audit exercise where the consultant declared 8,448 workers as unseen and 6,713 retirees as ghost pensioners, totaling 15,161 individuals. The state government, alarmed by this unusually high figure, initiated a re-verification process.
Re-verification Reveals Vast Discrepancy
According to the government's investigation, the consultant's report was fundamentally flawed. "The conclusion was arrived at by the company without making any efforts to call each of these workers to ascertain the reason for their absence," Alimi claimed.
The state's re-verification committee discovered a starkly different reality:
- Out of 8,448 workers declared unseen, 8,015 were confirmed as active, legitimate employees. Only 433 were unreachable.
- Out of 6,713 retirees labeled ghosts, 5,830 were verified as real. Only 883 could not be contacted.
This reduced the actual number of unverified personnel to approximately 1,316, a fraction of the consultant's claim. "The implication is that the percentage claim payable to Sally Tibbot Consulting reduced drastically," Alimi explained, accusing the firm of trying to "reap where she did not sow."
Legal Standoff and Final Recommendations
The dispute escalated into a legal correspondence. After a demand letter from the firm's lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, on June 25, 2025, the state government, through its counsel Ire Egert-Olusesi, responded on July 8, 2025. The government insisted payment must be based on verified savings. The firm countered on July 23, 2025, demanding payment for 15,161 workers, arguing the contract did not allow for re-verification. The state reiterated its position on August 5, 2025.
Based on its committee's findings, the Osun government stated the actual monthly savings from ghost workers was N27,077,847.60, not the N1,318,317,664.03 claimed by the consultant. Consequently, the committee recommended:
- Stopping salaries and pensions for the confirmed 1,316 unseen staff from July 2025.
- Paying the consultant N48,740,125.68, representing 159% of the actual annual savings, as per their Memorandum of Understanding.
The government maintains it is committed to sanitizing the payroll but will not implement a report that defrauds the state or removes legitimate workers. "It was within the government’s right to review the audit report before implementation," Alimi concluded, defending the decision to conduct a re-verification.
