The Osun State Government has rejected allegations that it paid over N13.7bn annually to thousands of ghost workers, describing the claim by forensic audit firm Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited as false, misleading, and defamatory.
The audit firm had alleged during a press briefing in Lagos on Friday that its payroll validation exercise uncovered 8,452 ghost workers on the Osun State payroll. However, reacting on Saturday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, dismissed the report, accusing the consultant of wrongly classifying legitimate public servants as ghost workers.
Alimi said the government was compelled to respond after discovering that the audit firm allegedly listed several top officials as ghost workers, including Governor Ademola Adeleke, Deputy Governor Kola Adewusi, the Secretary to the State Government, and the Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Clement Adebooye.
According to the commissioner, staff of polytechnics, tertiary institutions, professors, deans, provosts, and workers across more than ten government agencies were also affected, despite some agencies not being included in the audit exercise.
He stated that many of the affected workers had expressed outrage and were preparing legal action against the firm over what they described as defamation and damage to their professional reputations. Alimi added that several workers who had participated fully in verification exercises were still labelled as ghost workers.
Rejecting allegations of a cover up, the commissioner described the Lagos press conference as an attempt to pressure the state into accepting what he called a fraudulent audit report. He said a government led re verification exercise revealed that many individuals listed as ghost workers were legitimate employees.
Alimi maintained that while the government remains committed to sanitising the payroll, it would not remove genuine workers or accept a report capable of defrauding the state.
