UNIOSUN’s 250 staff not ‘ghost workers’, says Vice-Chancellor

By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo

The Vice-Chancellor, Osun State University, Osogbo, Professor Clement Adebooye, has refuted claims that 250 workers, including himself are ghost workers as declared by Sally Tibbot Limited, a consulting auditing firm.

It would be recalled that the firm, engaged by the State Government for staff audit exercise, after its assignment declared that N13.7billion payroll fraud, including 250 ghost workers in the University.

However, Professor Adebooye while addressing newsmen at the University Multi-purpose Hall on Saturday, said the firm conducted a hazy job without recourse to international best practices.

He said the firm failed to verify further from the management of the University to reconcile critical findings before insisting that the Vice-Chancellor and some other foundation staff whose records are legitimate should be sacked.

He explained, “In May/June 2023 a statewide personnel verification exercise was conducted. The consultant submitted a report. Unfortunately to our utmost surprise, the report classified the 250 legitimate workers of the University, including the Vice-Chancellor and 249 others as “ghost workers.”

“This classification was particularly troubling and psychologically disturbing because the individuals concerned physically appeared, presented valid credentials, and complied fully with the verification process.”

Adegbooye noted that section of the report that affects the University raises serious regulatory, ethical, and professional questions against the consultant and against the consultant’s expertise as a personnel auditor.

He recalled that the whole staff members of the University numbering 1,017 as of August 2023 were scheduled to be verified in just one day, Friday 18th August, 2023), along with many employees of the State from other parastatals, the Consultant’s personnel were grossly inadequate and unskilled to cope with this multitude.

He declared that the university has total number of 1,463 workers among which we have 628 academic staff, 466 non-teaching staff, 235 support staff and 134 corps members.

The VC threatened legal action against the consultant as he demanded for public apology from Sally Tibbot Limited.

Also, the chairman of Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (SSANU), Comrade John Adebayo condemned the consultant’s claims, recalling that he had berated the conduct of staff audit since the exercise.

Similarly, the Director of Works, Maintenance and Physical Planning at UNIOSUN, Engr. Ade Adepoji said he was shocked to learn that his name appeared on a document circulated to the institution weeks ago, allegedly listing him among staff declared as ghost workers.

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