Tinubu orders comprehensive audit of IPPIS to weed out ‘fake agencies, ghost workers’

President Bola Tinubu has directed Taiwo Oyedele, minister
of finance and co-ordinating minister of the economy, to oversee and coordinate
a comprehensive forensic audit of federal government systems.

 

Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesperson, said in a statement
on Friday that the audit will include a review of the Integrated Personnel and
Payroll Information System (IPPIS), federal government agencies, and their
administration and internal controls.

According to Onanuga, the directive follows the federal
executive council’s (FEC) resolution on August 19, 2026, in response to
findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC) on “fake agencies”, ghost workers, and other control
failures.

He said the exercise would establish the nature and extent
of weaknesses in government’s control system and determine how such loopholes
have been exploited.

He added that the review would comprise two interconnected
components, with the first focusing on a forensic audit of government systems,
particularly IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and
financial-management platforms.

“It will examine reported cases of ghost workers and payroll
fraud, reconcile the figures identified by the ICPC, trace how fictitious or
ineligible persons were enrolled, and review access, identity, biometric and
bank-account controls,” the statement reads.

“The exercise will also examine the interfaces between IPPIS
and other government platforms, including GIFMIS, Remita, the Treasury Single
Account (TSA) and Sub-TSA, to determine whether fraud resulted from system
defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate
circumvention.”

Onanuga said the second component of the audit would cover
all federal government agencies, departments, commissions, councils,
parastatals and other government bodies.

He said the audit would establish a definitive inventory of
such bodies and verify their legal basis, while examining how entities obtain
official recognition, budgetary consideration, correspondence privileges,
office facilities and access to government systems.

The exercise, the presidential spokesperson noted, would
also assess governance, procurement, internal audit, and oversight controls
across government to close systemic weaknesses that could allow irregular
entities or persons to access public resources.

Onanuga said Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted
with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic
integrity.

He said the audit team will have access to relevant
government systems and records as well as collaborate with the ICPC to ensure
that the review complements all ongoing investigations, prosecutions and
recoveries.

“President Tinubu expects the exercise to go beyond
identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failure by
strengthening the architecture of government, closing systemic loopholes,
improving data verification and reconciliation, reinforcing accountability, and
ensuring that only duly constituted entities and eligible personnel have access
to government resources,” Onanuga said.

He added that the exercise underscores the president’s
commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and
institutional integrity across the federal government.

BACKGROUND

The development comes amid a wider ICPC investigation into
the activities of the alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion
Council (PFIPC) and other procedural weaknesses in government.

On Friday, Tinubu ordered the suspension of three permanent
secretaries following the ICPC’s discovery of another “fake agency” operating
within the premises of the office of the secretary to the government of the
federation (OSGF).

The president also ordered the arrest of George Nwabueze,
the national coordinator of the “fake agency” identified as National Brands
Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office.

Critics, including Ali Ndume, former senate leader and
chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have cited the ongoing fake
agency scandal as evidence of oversight lapses of the current administration.

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