Osun Govt Rejects Claim of 8,452 Ghost Workers, Accuses Consultant of Inflated Audit Figures

The Osun State Government has rejected claims that thousands of ghost workers were uncovered during a staff audit conducted by Sally Tibbot Limited, insisting that the figures being circulated by the consulting firm are false and deliberately exaggerated.

The government said the consultancy, engaged on January 11, 2023, to carry out a personnel audit between June and December 2023, allegedly inflated the number of ghost workers identified in order to increase its remuneration.

 

In public statements, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sally Tibbot Limited, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, claimed the firm uncovered 8,452 ghost workers on the state’s payroll, costing Osun State about N13.72bn annually. She said the findings pointed to widespread payroll fraud across the civil and public service, adding that the firm deployed 125 personnel, both physically and remotely, and spent over N600m in executing the assignment.

 

However, the Osun State Government strongly disputed the claims. The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, described the allegations as a veiled attempt to coerce the state into accepting what he called a fraudulent audit report.

 

According to Alimi, the individuals listed by the consultant as ghost workers are genuine employees of the state government. He said the government was ready to provide documentary evidence to establish the legitimacy of every affected worker, if requested.

READ ALSO: Katsina Uncovers 3,488 Ghost Workers In LGs Payroll Audit

“The company did not at any point in time request for such proof nor send an acceptance letter for payment based on about 1,316 workers who were not seen,” Alimi said.

 

The government said the controversy surrounding the audit raised serious concerns, particularly because the consultant’s fees were tied to the amount of money purportedly saved from the payroll. It alleged that this arrangement encouraged inflated claims, accusing the firm of acting out of greed.

 

Alimi further alleged that the audit process was characterised by high-handed conduct, the exclusion of some staff from verification exercises and the maltreatment of workers, arguing that these actions undermined the credibility of the entire exercise.

 

“The state Government further submitted that while it was eager to clean up the state payroll, it can not in good conscience remove legitimate state government employees from the payroll and cannot submit to an audit report that has the potential to further defraud the state government.

 

“Submitting that it is within its right to review an audit report before implementation, the government noted that the existence of open gaps, verifiable lapses, several battles during the audit process and high number of ghost workers compelled the setting up of a verification committee as a prelude to the implementation of the staff audit report.”

 

He stressed: “Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd had declared 8,448 workers as unseen workers while 6,713 retirees were declared as ghost retirees. But 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.

 

“Upon the receipt of the report of the exercise carried out by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd, in order to avoid a situation where an honest worker would be declared a ghost worker only by reason of such worker’s absence from verification, especially if the reason for such absence is ill-health the Osun state Government carried out an in-depth analysis of the report and the following was discovered: Out of the total number of 8,448 workers declared by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd as unseen workers, the Osun State Government was able to confirm 8,015 as active workers while 433 workers were found to be unreachable.”

 

He continued “Also, out of the total number of 6,713 retirees declared as ghost workers by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd as unseen workers, the Osun State Government was able to confirm the existence of 5,830 retirees while 883 could not be reached.

 

“The implication of this is that the percentage claim payable to Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd reduced drastically by virtue of the fact that the said Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd attempted to reap where she did not sow by inflating the number of ghost workers/retirees to 15,161 when in actual fact, the unseen workers/retirees are about 1,316.”

 

“On 23rd July, 2025, the counsel to Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd wrote another letter insisting that payment should be made on 15,161 as against the about 1,316 workers, claiming that the agreement between the company and Osun State Government did not envisage a re-verification exercise by the government.

 

“It should be emphasised that the state government stands by the recommendations of its re- verification committee which stated as follows: That the total emolument (gains) to the (Government from the unseen personnel is Twenty-seven Million, Seventy•seven Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty-Seven Naira, Sixty Kobo (N27,077,847.60) only as opposed to One Billion, Three Hundred and Fifteen Million, Three Hundred and Seventeen Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty-four Naira, Three Kobo (NI318,3 17,664.03) given by the Consulting firm.”

 

“That the main Committee was of the conviction that enough time and action have been taken on the re-verification exercise, based on this, it recommends as follows: That the salaries and pensions as well as palliatives of the unseen staff (active and retirees) be permanently stopped with effect from July, 2025;

 

“That the Consultant be paid the sum of Forty-eight Million, Seven Hundred and Forty Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty-five Naira, Sixty-eight Kobo (N48,740,125.68) representing 159% of the annual gross salaries and allowances the re-verification enabled the Government to save in one year in line with Section 3(3.1) of the MoU between the State Government and the Consulting firm on the exercise.”