Staff verification: Consulting firm misled us to maximise profit – Osun govt

By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo

Osun State Government has disclosed that the consulting firm, which conducted its staff auditing exercise, deliberately misled it on the number of ghost workers just to maximise profit.

The firm, Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd, had through its counsel claimed that it helped the state government discover 8,448 workers and 6,713 retirees as ghosts drawing salaries and pension fraudulently.

However, the state government in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, said the claim was an attempt to rob the government and maximise profit by the firm.

He said, “Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd had declared 8,448 workers as unseen workers while 6,713 retirees were declared as ghost retirees. But the conclusion was arrived at by the company without making any efforts to call each of these workers to ascertain the reason for their absence.

“Upon the receipt of the report of the exercise carried out by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd, in order to avoid a situation where an honest worker would be declared a ghost worker only by reason of such worker’s absence from verification, especially if the reason for such absence is ill-health the Osun state Government carried out an in-depth analysis of the report and the following was discovered; that out of the total number of 8,448 workers declared by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd as unseen workers, the Osun State Government was able to confirm 8,015 as active workers while 433 workers were found to be unreachable.

“Also, out of the total number of 6,713 retirees declared as ghost workers by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd as unseen workers, the Osun State Government was able to confirm the existence of 5,830 retirees while 883 could not be reached.

“The implication of this is that the percentage claim payable to Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd reduced drastically by virtue of the fact that the said Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd attempted to reap where she did not sow by inflating the number of ghost workers/retirees to 15,161 when, in actual fact, the unseen workers/retirees are about 1,316.”

He further disclosed that the agreement the State reached with the firm is to pay for her services based on the amount saved by the state government as a result of the verification exercise, which was later reviewed by the committee set up by the state to address complaints from Labour Unions after the said exercise.

The statement adds, “The said Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd did not avert her mind to the fact that payment, by the agreement between the parties, is to be made on the actual amount saved by the state by the verification exercise. The Osun State Government, by a letter dated 5th August, 2025 responded and drew the attention of the company to the fact that the agreement between the parties only envisaged payment to the company based on the actual savings.

“The State Government, through her counsel, further referred the company to the relevant Clause of the Agreement executed between both parties.

“It should be emphasised that the state government stands by the recommendations of its re- verification committee which stated that the total emolument (gains) to the (Government from the unseen personnel is Twenty-seven Million, Seventy-seven Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty-Seven Naira, Sixty Kobo (N27,077,847.60) only as opposed to One Billion, Three Hundred and Fifteen Million, Three Hundred and Seventeen Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty-four Naira, Three Kobo (NI318,3 17,664.03) given by the Consulting firm.

“That the main Committee was of the conviction that enough time and action have been taken on the re-verification exercise, based on this, it recommends that the salaries and pensions as well as palliatives of the unseen staff (active and retirees) be permanently stopped with effect from July, 2025.

“That the Consultant be paid the sum of Forty-eight Million, Seven Hundred and Forty Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty-five Naira, Sixty-eight Kobo (N48,740,125.68) representing 159% of the annual gross salaries and allowances the re-verification enabled the Government to save in one year in line with Section 3(3.1) of the MoU between the State Government and the Consulting firm on the exercise.”

It would be recalled that the firm was engaged to conduct staff auditing in April 2023, during which labour unions and pensioners’ bodies accused the firm of conducting a shoddy job with a view to maximising profit and deliberately sidelining workers and pensioners with health conditions.

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