Osun APC Seeks Probe of Alleged N13bn Payroll Fraud Under Adeleke
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has called on anti-corruption agencies to investigate an alleged payroll fraud involving over N13bn under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The party made the call in a statement signed by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, following claims that a forensic audit of the state civil service uncovered payments to thousands of non-existent workers.
The APC’s position followed a press conference addressed on Friday by Jiti Ogunye, legal counsel to SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, which conducted the audit.
Ogunye said the firm identified 8,452 alleged ghost workers on the Osun State payroll, adding that more than N13bn was allegedly paid annually to the purported non-existent employees.
According to Ogunye, the executive brief submitted to Governor Adeleke showed that the January 2023 payroll for mainstream workers and pensioners stood at N4.48bn, based on payments to 37,456 workers and 17,918 pensioners.
He said a subsequent staff audit, payroll reengineering and validation exercise revised the genuine monthly payroll to N3.34bn, with an actual workforce of 29,004 staff and 17,918 pensioners.
He added that the exercise, conducted between June 2022 and April 2023, resulted in alleged monthly savings of N1.14bn, amounting to about N13.7bn annually.
Ogunye said the firm submitted its full report to the governor on June 27, 2024, and publicly presented its findings in Osogbo on July 10, 2024.
Ogunye further claimed that despite repeated demands for the implementation of the report’s recommendations and payment for the completed assignment, the firm had yet to receive a response from the state government.
He also alleged that members of the consulting firm’s management had received threats following their insistence on the implementation of the audit recommendations.
Reacting, the Osun APC urged the Nigeria Police to investigate the alleged threats and called on statutory anti-corruption agencies to probe the claims surrounding the reported N13bn payroll payments.
The party also said it expected the state government to address the allegations and clarify the status of the audit report.
However, Governor Adeleke welcomed calls for a review of the staff audit report by anti-corruption agencies.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, on Saturday, the governor said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission were free to examine the report and the processes behind it, noting that any review would concern payroll and personnel records inherited from the administration of former governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Similarly, the Osun State Government, through the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, dismissed the allegations of ghost workers, describing the consulting firm’s press briefing as an attempt to blackmail the government into accepting what it termed a disputed audit report.
Alimi said the unusually high number of alleged ghost workers necessitated a re-verification exercise, which, according to him, revealed significant inflation in the figures originally submitted.
Sodiq Yusuf is a trained media practitioner and journalist with considerable years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital journalism. His interests cover a wide range of causes in politics, governance, sports, community development, and good governance.
