Osun dismisses N13.7bn ghost worker allegation, faults audit firm’s report

The Osun State Government has rejected allegations by a forensic audit firm, Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited, that it padded the state payroll with thousands of ghost workers, describing the claims as false, misleading and defamatory.

The consultant had alleged at a press conference in Lagos on Friday that its forensic audit and payroll validation exercise uncovered 8,452 ghost workers allegedly costing the state about N13.7bn annually.

Responding on Saturday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, dismissed the allegations in a statement issued in Osogbo, accusing the firm of wrongly classifying legitimate workers as ghost employees. He said the government was compelled to respond after the consultant reportedly listed prominent public officials, including Governor Ademola Adeleke, his deputy Kola Adewusi, the Secretary to the State Government, and the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Clement Adebooye, as ghost workers.

Alimi said the state government issued the statement to clarify the facts, reject what it termed a flawed audit report, and support affected workers who were preparing to seek legal redress over alleged defamation. According to him, those wrongly labelled as ghost workers included staff of tertiary institutions, top professors, deans, provosts and employees across multiple agencies.

“The workers affected included the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, staff of polytechnics, several professors, deans and provosts,” Alimi said, adding that “more than ten agencies and several tertiary institutions were not even covered by the audit, yet workers in those agencies were declared ghost workers.”

He further stated that public servants named in the report had resolved to drag the company and its lead consultant to court for what they described as character assassination and damage to careers built over decades of service.

“In multiple engagements with the state government, workers across various agencies decried the defamation perpetrated by the consultant by declaring them ghost workers, despite the fact that they presented themselves for verification, were duly captured and even expressed readiness to further prove their legitimacy,” the statement read.

Alimi also accused the firm of gross inconsistencies, noting that it allegedly listed the governor, deputy governor, the Secretary to the State Government and more than two-thirds of political appointees as ghost workers.

Dismissing suggestions of a cover-up, the commissioner described the Lagos press briefing as “a subtle blackmail designed to force a fraudulent staff audit report on the state.” He said a re-verification exercise conducted by the government revealed that the number of alleged ghost workers was grossly inflated and that many of those listed were verifiably legitimate employees.

While reaffirming the government’s commitment to cleaning up the state payroll, Alimi said Osun would not act on an audit report that could further harm the state.

“The government cannot, in good conscience, remove legitimate employees from the payroll or submit to an audit report that has the potential to further defraud the state,” he said.