President Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems.
The audit will include a review of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Federal Government agencies, and their administration and internal controls.
A statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser, Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, indicated Tinubu’s directive followed the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC’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.
According to the statement, the exercise will establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in Government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited.
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Specifically, Onanuga stated that the review would comprise two interconnected components.
The first will focus on a forensic audit of Government systems, particularly IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms; 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.
In addition, 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.
The second component of the audit will cover all Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies. It will 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 will 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.
Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity as the audit team will have access to relevant government systems and records and also collaborate with the ICPC to ensure that the review complements all ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recoveries.
Onanuga further maintained that the President expected 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.
He stated that the exercise underscored the President’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government’s administration system.
