The Osun State Government has refuted allegations of a N13 billion payroll scam by Sally Tibbot Limited, describing the renewed claims as fake news allegedly sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Government insisted that there was no N13 billion naira payroll fraud as verification of the controversial audit report confirmed that more than two third of those declared ghost workers are bonafide staff with full identification and documentation.
In a statement issued on Friday by Kolapo Alimi, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, the State Government declared for the second time that Governor Ademola Adeleke is open to the investigation of the staff audit report by anti- corruption agencies as he was the actual initiator of the audit project in the first place, adding that if there was fraud, Adegboyega Oyetola’s Administration should be held responsible.
Part of the statement read: “We submit that Governor Adeleke hired the consultant to probe reports and rumours of padded payroll inherited from the Gboyega Oyetola administration. If there is any fraud, it is not that of Governor Adeleke but that of former Governor Oyetola as the audited payroll was inherited from the Oyetola administration.
”We inform the public that the governor will be happy if 15,000 ghost workers can truly be fished out. This was the reason why the Governor initially insisted against all odds that the audit report must be fully implemented before credible loopholes were discovered in the report.
”As of now, the Governor will be more than elated if the EFCC and the ICPC can help to identify the ghost workers. So the call by Sally Tibbot for the involvement of the anti-corruption agencies is most warmly welcome. The governor has nothing to hide especially as the payroll audit in question was between 2018 to November 2023.”
Speaking on the involvement of Deji Adeleke in the matter, the commissioner affirmed that the business mogul was never a party to the entire process except his intervention when it was obvious the staff audit report was already creating challenges capable of distracting delivery of good governance by the governor.
According to him, a Review Committee comprising representatives of the consultant and labour unions was subsequently proposed and accepted to address the loopholes and ensure seamless implementation.
”The review committee to which the firm agreed later discovered that out of 8,448 workers declared as unseen by Sally Tibbot, 8, 015 were confirmed as active workers while 433 were found to be unreachable. Also out of the total 6,713 retirees declared as ghost pensioners, the review committee was able to confirm 5,830 while 883 could not be reached,” he alleged.
While restating its readiness for intervention on the matter by anti-corruption agencies, the state government accused the consultant of serving as a willing tool for the All Progressives Congress(APC), adding that “ the APC sponsored fake news has failed.”
