Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited, an audit firm which recently alleged a N13.7 billion payroll fraud in Osun State, on Tuesday shared more details on its contract with the state government and its audit findings.
The firm alluded to officials’ alleged complicity in the alleged payroll fraud and efforts to block the deployment of an Automated Payroll Administration System designed to prevent payroll fraud.
Sally Tibbot Consulting, which recently fell out with the Osun State Government over non-implementation of its report and non-payment for its services, stated these in a press statement on Tuesday to counter the state government’s rebuttal of its audit report.
It insisted the state’s rebuttal is misleading and contractually baseless.
At an earlier press briefing on 9 January, the Lagos-based audit firm headed by Sa’adat Bakrin‑Ottun, accused the Osun State Government of failing to implement its forensic payroll audit report, which it said uncovered an annual payroll fraud of N13.7 billion, and of refusing to pay agreed professional fees for the work done.
The state, through the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, kolapo Alimi responded a day later, saying a post-audit re-verification exercise showed that most of the names the firm flagged as ghost workers and pensioners were verified as legitimate employees and retirees. The government insisted only about 1,316 personnel could not be confirmed.
The Osun State Government also accused the audit firm of deliberately inflating the number of ghost workers because its payment was tied to the amount of savings generated from the exercise. Officials said the consultancy’s fee arrangement created an incentive to exaggerate figures in order to earn higher remuneration.
According to the government, the unusually high number of ghost workers claimed by the firm raised red flags and made it necessary to review the audit report before any implementation. It said it could not accept or act on findings that, in its view, had the potential to further defraud the state.
But the firm had rejected the government’s revised figures and said the state lacked the technical capacity to independently conduct a proper forensic audit, which was why it engaged the consultancy in the first place.
Sally Tibbot shares more audit details
In a statement issued on 20 January and signed by the management of Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited, the firm said the payroll audit contract did not allow for any post-submission reverification and described the government’s internal review as improper and self-serving.
According to the consultant, the Osun State Government failed to formally acknowledge receipt of the audit report for over a year after it was submitted in June 2024. It said repeated letters demanding payment and implementation of the recommendations were ignored until July 2025, when the government responded through its lawyers.
Sally Tibbot Consulting alleged that during the period of silence, payroll records were altered in an attempt to legitimise ghost names earlier identified in the audit. The firm claimed that registers were printed and circulated to ministries and agencies for signatures to be appended against names of nonexistent workers.
“The fraudulent elements within the high echelon of the Osun State Government were busy cooking their books by compiling the nonexistent names to add to the payroll register.
“Workers’ registers were printed and circulated to the ministries, departments, institutions and agencies where the ghost workers were discovered during the authentic verification exercise and audit, carried out by SALLY TIBBOT, for mass appending of falsified signatures by random workers, in place of the nonexistent names therein appearing, purporting the signatures so collated to be evidence of appearance and presence of the ghost names,” the statement said.
The firm said the government’s claim that it conducted a fresh verification exercise after the audit exercise was false and unsupported by evidence.
It challenged the state to publicly release proof of the alleged reverification, including official notices, timetables, video recordings and a white paper detailing the outcome.
“SALLY TIBBOT challenges the Osun State Government to provide proof and give concrete evidence (including photographic and video recordings and data assemblage) that it carried out a workers reverification exercise and a payroll re-audit, after SALLY TIBBOT submitted its Audit Report.
“SALLY TIBBOT has it on good authority that no workers reverification exercise was carried out, and that no payroll re-audit was conducted, after the submission of SALLY TIBBOT’s Report and Recommendations. None whatsoever,” the statement read.
The consultant also said the audit uncovered cases where multiple salaries were paid into single bank accounts and instances where several workers were linked to one bank verification number. It said these findings were clearly documented in the report submitted to the government.
The firm rejected allegations that it inflated the number of ghost workers to earn higher fees, describing the claim as false and malicious. It said the “no savings, no pay” fee structure cited by the government was a standard audit practice and was freely agreed to by both parties.
“The allegation that SALLY TIBBOT inflated the figures of the ghost workers established by the forensic audit exercise presumably in order to earn a higher recompense under the payment term of the payroll audit contract agreement, (because SALLY TIBBOT’s fee is a calculated percentage of the savings made by the audit report, is false, frivolous, desperately wicked, malicious and defamatory, an allegation which is actionable in law),” the firm said.
More allegations
Sally Tibbot Consulting further accused senior government officials of deliberately blocking the deployment of an Automated Payroll Administration System designed to prevent payroll fraud.
It said the state government paid N79 million for the system but refused to install it after completion, while continuing to use an existing payroll platform.
“After the building of the platform, which was duly and fully paid for, the Osun State Government was notified of readiness for installation and deployment, but the all-powerful Chief of Staff to the Governor rejected the APAS and the installation of same without giving any reason. The ostensible reason, of course, is the desire by the payroll fraud cabal to continue with the perpetration of the fraud,” the statement read.
The firm further rejected claims by the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Enlightenment, who had alleged that the firm declared the state governor, deputy governor, Secretary to the State Government, and more than two-thirds of political appointees as ghost workers.
The company described the allegation as baseless, emphasizing that political office holders were not included in the payroll audit and verification contract.
“In any case, at the time of the payroll audit and verification contract award and engagement of SALLY TIBBOT, no political appointments had been made to political offices save for the Chief of Staff and the Head of Service,” the company said.
The firm said it would petition anti-corruption agencies to investigate the matter and would pursue recovery of its contractual fees through legal channels.
READ ALSO: Osun reacts to audit firm’s N13.7bn payroll fraud allegation
Background
Sally Tibbot Consulting said it was engaged by the Osun State Government in May 2023 to conduct a comprehensive verification and forensic audit of all workers and pensioners drawing salaries from the state.
The firm said the exercise lasted 12 months, including six months of physical verification across ministries, departments, agencies, local governments and state-owned institutions.
According to the consultant, verification schedules were widely publicised and workers were given sufficient time to appear.
At the end of the exercise, the firm said it identified 8,448 workers and 6,713 pensioners who failed to appear for verification and were classified as ghost beneficiaries. It said these names were linked to monthly payments of about N1.14 billion.
The Osun State Government, however, rejected the consultant’s findings, accusing the firm of inflating figures and acting in bad faith.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, the government said its review of the audit report showed that most of the workers declared as ghost workers were legitimate employees.
According to the government, only 1,316 workers and pensioners could not be traced after its analysis. It also said affected workers, including senior academics and administrators, were considering legal action against the consultant for defamation.
