Tinubu orders forensic audit of MDAs, IPPIS over ghost workers, fake agencies

By Onu Okorie

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems amid concerns over ghost workers, fake agencies and other control failures.
The directive, contained in a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, followed a resolution of the Federal Executive Council FEC on August 19, 2026.
The FEC resolution was prompted by findings from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) concerning alleged fake government agencies, ghost workers and weaknesses in the Federal Government’s administrative and financial control systems.
According to the statement, the audit is designed not only to identify individual cases of fraud but also to establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in government systems and determine how such loopholes may have been exploited.
The exercise will have two interconnected components, with the first focusing on a forensic review of government systems, particularly the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms.
The audit team will investigate reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile figures identified by the ICPC and trace how fictitious or ineligible persons were enrolled on government payrolls.
It will also examine access controls, identity verification, biometric systems and bank-account controls used in managing government personnel and payroll records.
Particular attention will be paid to the interfaces between IPPIS and other government financial platforms, including the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Remita, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Sub-TSA.
The review is expected to determine whether identified fraud resulted from system defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention of established controls.
The second component will cover all Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.
The exercise will seek to establish a definitive inventory of such entities and verify their legal basis. It will also examine how government bodies obtain official recognition, budgetary consideration, correspondence privileges, office facilities and access to government systems.
Governance, procurement, internal-audit and oversight mechanisms across the Federal Government will also come under scrutiny.
The objective, according to the statement, is to identify and close systemic weaknesses that could enable irregular entities or individuals to gain access to public resources.
President Tinubu directed that the audit be conducted with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.
The audit team will have access to relevant government systems and records and will collaborate with the ICPC to ensure that the exercise complements ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recovery efforts.
The President expects the exercise to go beyond exposing individual cases of fraud or administrative failure.
It is also intended to strengthen the overall architecture of government, close systemic loopholes, improve data verification and reconciliation, reinforce accountability and ensure that only duly constituted government entities and eligible personnel have access to public resources.
The exercise, the statement said, underscores Tinubu’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.