President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a comprehensive forensic audit of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, and all Federal Government agencies, following concerns over ghost workers, fake agencies and weaknesses in government controls.
The directive was disclosed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a statement posted on his X account on Friday, August 28, 2026.
Under the directive, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, will oversee and coordinate the forensic audit of Federal Government systems.
The exercise follows a resolution of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, on August 19, 2026, which came in response to findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, concerning fake government agencies, ghost workers and other control failures.
According to the statement, the audit is designed to determine the nature and extent of weaknesses within government control systems and establish how such loopholes may have been exploited to access public resources.
The review will consist of two major components, with the first focusing on government systems, particularly 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 individuals were enrolled into government systems.
It will also examine access controls, identity verification, biometric records and bank-account controls associated with government payroll systems.
The exercise will further scrutinise the relationship 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 government said the review would seek to establish whether identified fraud resulted from system defects, procedural failures, inadequate separation of duties or deliberate circumvention of established controls.
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The second component will cover all Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.
It will seek to establish a definitive inventory of such entities and verify their legal basis.
The audit will also examine how government bodies obtain official recognition, budgetary consideration, correspondence privileges, office facilities and access to government systems.
Beyond identifying questionable entities, the exercise will assess governance, procurement, internal audit and oversight mechanisms across the Federal Government.
The objective, according to the Presidency, is to close systemic weaknesses that could allow irregular entities or individuals to gain access to public resources.
President Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted according to the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.
The audit team will be granted access to relevant government systems and records and will collaborate with the ICPC to ensure that the exercise complements ongoing investigations, prosecutions and asset-recovery efforts.
The President also directed that the exercise should go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failures.
Instead, the audit is expected to strengthen the overall architecture of government, close systemic loopholes, improve data verification and reconciliation, reinforce accountability and ensure that only legally constituted government entities and eligible personnel have access to public resources.
The Presidency said the exercise underscores Tinubu’s commitment to improving transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.