Saturday, August 29, 2026 - President Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyodele, to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems, including the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, federal agencies, and their administration and internal controls.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and
Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this in a statement titled ‘President Tinubu
Approves Comprehensive Forensic Audit of IPPIS, Federal Agencies, Ministries,’
on Friday.
The directive follows the Federal Executive Council’s
resolution of August 19, 2026, in response to findings by the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on fake agencies, ghost
workers and other control failures within government institutions.
The audit is expected to establish the nature and extent of
weaknesses in government’s control systems and determine how such weaknesses
have been exploited.
According to the statement, the review will 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.
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 exercise will also examine the interfaces between IPPIS
and other government platforms, including GIFMIS, Remita, the Treasury Single
Account and Sub-TSA, to determine whether fraud resulted from system defects,
process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention.
The second component, Onanuga said, 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 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.
President Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted
with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic
integrity.
The audit team will have access to relevant government
systems and records, and will collaborate with the ICPC to ensure the review
complements all ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recoveries.
The President said he expects the exercise to go beyond
identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failure, aiming instead
to strengthen the architecture of government, close systemic loopholes, improve
data verification and reconciliation, reinforce accountability, and ensure that
only duly constituted entities and eligible personnel have access to government
resources.
The directive is the latest step in an escalating response
to a widening scandal that began with the exposure of the fictitious
Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, whose self-styled
Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, is currently facing prosecution on charges
of forgery and impersonation.
The ICPC’s interim report to the President on August 6 had
flagged verification and coordination weaknesses across the Office of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Head of the
Civil Service, the Office of the Accountant-General, the Budget Office and
NITDA.
On August 22, the ICPC disclosed the discovery of another fictitious entity, the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office, also allocated space within the OSGF premises and promoted by one George Nwabueze under at least four aliases.
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