The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, says it has uncovered 908 suspected ghost workers across at least 50 federal ministries, departments and agencies.
The commission also disclosed that about 942 million naira allegedly paid as fraudulent salaries had been recovered as part of its ongoing investigation into payroll fraud in government institutions.
The ICPC Chairman, Musa Adamu Aliyu, made the disclosure while speaking on the commission’s payroll verification exercise, according to a report by BBC Pidgin.
The Nigeria Police Force recorded the highest number of suspected ghost workers, with 570 names identified during the exercise.
Aliyu said, “For this operation, we identified 570 people whom we suspect are among the fake workers collecting salaries without working.”
The National Water Resources Authority followed with 80 suspected ghost workers, while 56 were identified in the Federal Ministry of Works.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had 24 suspected ghost workers, while the Ministry of Defence recorded 19.
The ICPC chairman said the investigation also uncovered 17 suspected ghost workers each in the Federal Ministry of Electricity and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
The Federal Ministry of Health had 15 suspected ghost workers, while 12 were identified in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Interior were also listed among institutions affected by the alleged payroll fraud, although the commission did not disclose the number of suspected ghost workers linked to them.
The ICPC described ghost workers as fictitious names allegedly inserted into government payrolls to fraudulently receive salaries.
According to the commission, some cases involved officials allegedly adding relatives or associates to government payrolls despite the individuals not being legitimate employees.
Aliyu cited one case in which a man allegedly placed the names of his wife, son and mother-in-law on the government payroll, while also receiving the salaries of 12 other workers.
The ICPC said its investigation into payroll fraud began in 2024 and is still ongoing.
