Trending 
The Osun State government has dismissed allegations by forensic audit firm Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited that it padded its payroll with thousands of ghost workers, describing the claims as false and damaging.
At a press briefing in Lagos on Friday, the firm claimed its forensic audit and payroll verification uncovered 8,452 fictitious workers allegedly paid more than ₦13.7 billion annually by the state government.
In a statement issued in Osogbo on Saturday, January 10, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, rejected the allegation, saying the consultants wrongly classified genuine employees as ghost workers.
Alimi said the government reacted after learning that the firm allegedly listed Governor Ademola Adeleke, Deputy Governor Kola Adewusi, the Secretary to the State Government, the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Clement Adebooye, and several other officials as ghost workers.
He said the statement aimed to clarify the issues, refute the claims, and support affected workers who are considering legal action over what they described as defamation.
According to Alimi, those labelled as ghost workers included the vice-chancellor, senior university staff, professors, deans, provosts and employees of several tertiary institutions.
He noted that workers in more than 10 agencies not covered by the audit were also wrongly declared fictitious.
The commissioner said affected public servants had resolved to sue the firm and its lead consultant for damaging their reputations, noting that many had presented themselves for verification and were duly captured as legitimate employees.
Alimi also accused the firm of declaring the governor, his deputy, the secretary to the state government, and more than two-thirds of political appointees as ghost workers.
Rejecting suggestions of a cover-up, he described the Lagos briefing as an attempt to pressure the state into accepting what he called a flawed audit report.
He said a government-led re-verification exercise revealed significant inflation in the number of alleged ghost workers and confirmed that those named were lawful employees.
While reaffirming the government’s commitment to cleaning up the payroll, Alimi said Osun would not remove legitimate workers or accept an audit report that could further defraud the state.
