Ghost Workers, Fake Agencies: Tinubu Orders Forensic Audit

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic audit of the Federal Government’s payroll, personnel and financial-management systems, including the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and federal government agencies.
The directive, announced on August 28, 2026, followed findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) concerning alleged ghost workers, fictitious government agencies and weaknesses in internal control systems.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has been directed to oversee and coordinate the exercise.
The audit will scrutinise IPPIS and related payroll, pension and financial-management platforms to determine how fictitious or ineligible persons may have gained access to the government payroll. Investigators will also examine identity, biometric and bank-account verification systems, as well as possible payroll fraud.
The review will extend beyond IPPIS to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Remita, Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Sub-TSA. The exercise is aimed at determining whether irregularities resulted from system weaknesses, administrative failures, inadequate separation of duties or deliberate circumvention of controls.
The second component of the audit will cover ministries, departments, agencies, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies. It will seek to establish a definitive inventory of Federal Government entities and verify the legal basis for their existence, including how they obtain official recognition, budgetary allocations and access to government facilities and systems.
The Presidency said the objective is not merely to identify individual cases of fraud but to close systemic loopholes, strengthen accountability, improve data verification and ensure that only legally constituted agencies and eligible personnel have access to public resources.
The audit team is expected to work with the ICPC and have access to relevant government records and systems.