President Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee a comprehensive forensic audit of federal government systems.
The audit will cover the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, federal agencies, and their administration and internal controls.
The directive follows the Federal Executive Council’s 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.
The exercise will determine the nature and extent of weaknesses in government control systems and how they have been exploited.
It will be done in two interconnected components.
The first focuses 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 figures identified by the ICPC, trace how fictitious persons were enrolled, and review access, identity, biometric and bank account controls.
The audit will also examine interfaces between IPPIS and other platforms including GIFMIS, Remita, the Treasury Single Account, TSA, and Sub-TSA, to determine if fraud resulted from system defects, process failures, poor segregation of duties, or deliberate circumvention.
The second component covers all federal government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other bodies. It will establish a definitive inventory, verify their legal basis, and examine how entities obtain official recognition, budgetary allocation, correspondence privileges, office facilities and access to government systems.
The review will also assess governance, procurement, internal audit and oversight controls across government to close loopholes that allow irregular entities or persons to access public resources.
President Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted with independence, professionalism and forensic integrity. The audit team will have access to relevant systems and records and will collaborate with the ICPC to complement ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recoveries.
The President said the goal goes beyond identifying individual fraud cases. It is to strengthen government architecture, close systemic loopholes, improve data verification and reconciliation, reinforce accountability, and ensure only duly constituted entities and eligible personnel access public resources.
The exercise underscores the administration’s commitment to transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.
