News Update
Moment after a consulting Limited released details of 8,452 alleged ghost workers into the Osun state’s payroll and paying them a sum of N13,716,914,129.28 annually, the state government has cleared the air on the allegations.
Online Newspaper recalls that 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.
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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.
Bakrin-Ottun said the firm conducted the exercise between June and December 2023, deploying 125 personnel both on-site and remotely, and expending over N600m to execute the contract.
Presenting the findings, she disclosed that as of January 2023, the Osun State payroll stood at N4,483,943,105.70 monthly for 37,456 staff and 17,918 pensioners.
However, after the audit, the verified payroll was reduced to N3,340,866,928.26 monthly, covering 29,004 genuine staff and the same 17,918 pensioners.
She said the reduction indicated that 8,452 ghost workers had been fraudulently inserted into the payroll, resulting in a monthly loss of N1,143,076,177.44 and an annual loss of N13,716,914,129.28 to the state.
Bakrin-Ottun stated that the audit report and an accompanying invoice were submitted to Governor Ademola Adeleke on June 27, 2024, first during a private presentation in Lagos and later at a public ceremony in Osogbo on July 10, 2024.
She added that despite the clear findings and contractual provisions requiring payment within five working days of submission of the report, the state government had neither implemented the recommendations nor paid the agreed professional fees.
Meanwhile, in a release signed by the Commissioner for Information, Barr Kolapo Alimi on Saturday, the Osun government said the public servants who were declared ghost workers by Sally Tibbot Limited have resolved to drag the company and the lead consultant to court for soiling and defaming their careers of several decades.
In multiple reach out to the state government, the workers across various agencies decried the defamation and character assassination the consultant perpetrated by declaring them as ghost workers, vowing to seek redress in court of law.
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According to the state government, the workers affected included the Vice Chancellor of the Osun State University, staff of polytechnics, several top professors, Deans, provosts among others. More than ten agencies alongside several tertiary institutions were not covered and workers in those agencies were declared ghost workers, adding that the consultant declared the state governor, the deputy governor, the Secretary to the state government and more than two thirds of political appointees in the state as ghost workers.
The release also confirmed that the Osun State Government had responded by debunking allegations of alleged cover up and described the press briefing by the company as a subtle blackmail to force a fraudulent staff audit report on the state.
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