Osun govt rejects Sally Tibbot Payroll claims, alleges inflation of ghost workers

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

The Osun State Government has dismissed allegations of a cover-up in its payroll verification exercise, accusing Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd, a private firm hired to audit government staff and retiree records for ghost workers, of inflating figures to force what it described as a fraudulent audit report on the state.

In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Public Orientation, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the government said a re-verification exercise revealed that many workers the company labelled as ghost employees were legitimate. The review showed that those reported as unseen were mostly active staff or retirees, contradicting the consultant’s claims.

The government also offered to furnish the company with proof of each worker’s existence, but the firm never requested such documentation nor accepted payment based on 1,316 workers who were not verified. It alleged that the consultant’s fees, tied to the amount supposedly saved, motivated the inflation of ghost worker figures.

Sally Tibbot Consulting had initially declared 8,448 workers as unseen and 6,713 retirees as ghost retirees without contacting the individuals to confirm their status. The government’s analysis later confirmed 8,015 active workers and 5,830 retirees, leaving 433 active staff and 883 retirees unreachable.

The state said this reduced the actual number of unseen personnel to about 1,316, far lower than the 15,161 claimed by the consultancy, drastically lowering the payment percentage due.

In response to a demand letter from the firm’s counsel dated 25 June 2025, the government, through its own lawyers, explained on 8 July 2025 that payment should reflect the verified number of ghost workers while additional checks continued. Sally Tibbot Consulting later insisted on payment based on the inflated figure, arguing the agreement did not allow for re-verification.

The government referred the company to the relevant clause of the agreement and stood by its re-verification committee’s findings. The committee calculated the actual gains from unseen personnel at ₦27,077,847.60, contrasting sharply with the ₦1.318 billion claimed by the consultancy.

The committee recommended permanently stopping salaries, pensions, and palliatives of the unseen staff from July 2025 and paying the consultant ₦48,740,125.68, representing 159% of the annual savings achieved from the exercise, in line with the MoU governing the verification process.