President Bola Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic audit of the Federal Government’s personnel, payroll and administrative systems following concerns over ghost workers, fake agencies and other control failures.
The President directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, to supervise the exercise.
The directive was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
According to the statement, the audit will cover the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, as well as Federal Government ministries, departments, agencies and other public institutions.
The decision followed a resolution of the Federal Executive Council on August 19, 2026, after findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission raised concerns about “fake agencies”, ghost workers and weaknesses in government controls.
The Presidency said the audit would determine “the nature and extent of weaknesses in Government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited.”
The exercise will have two major components.
The first will examine government payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management systems, with particular attention to IPPIS.
It will investigate reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile figures identified by the ICPC and establish how fictitious or ineligible individuals were enrolled in the system.
The audit will also scrutinise access controls, identity verification, biometric records and bank-account details linked to government payrolls.
It will further examine the connections between IPPIS and other government financial platforms, including the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, Remita, the Treasury Single Account and Sub-Treasury Account.
The government said the review would establish whether fraudulent activities resulted from “system defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention.”
The second component will focus on Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.
The exercise is expected to produce a verified inventory of such institutions and establish their legal status, while examining how they gain government recognition and access to public resources.
Their access to budgetary allocations, official correspondence, office facilities and government systems will also be reviewed.
In addition, the audit will assess governance, procurement, internal audit and oversight mechanisms across government institutions.
The Presidency said the objective was to “close systemic weaknesses that could allow irregular entities or persons to access public resources.”
Tinubu directed that the exercise be carried out “with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.”
The audit team will have access to relevant government records and systems and will work with the ICPC to ensure that the exercise complements ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recovery efforts.
Onanuga said the President expects the exercise to go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative lapses.
Instead, the audit will seek to strengthen government systems, improve data verification and reconciliation, reinforce accountability and ensure that only legally constituted entities and eligible personnel benefit from government resources.
The Presidency said the exercise was part of Tinubu’s broader efforts to strengthen “transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity” across the Federal Government.
