President Bola Tinubu has ordered a forensic audit of the Federal Government’s payroll systems and all federal agencies following findings on ghost workers, questionable entities, and weaknesses in public-sector controls.
The exercise will be supervised by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, under a directive issued by the President on the strength of a Federal Executive Council resolution of August 19, 2026.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed the directive in a statement on Friday.
The review will place particular attention on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, alongside related personnel, pension, and financial-management platforms. Investigators will reconcile suspected ghost-worker cases with figures identified by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
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The audit team will also trace how fictitious or ineligible persons entered government payrolls and examine the controls governing access to personnel records, biometric information, and bank accounts.
The review will extend to the connections between IPPIS and other government platforms, including the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, Remita, the Treasury Single Account, and Sub-Treasury Account.
Onanuga said the exercise would establish whether irregular payments resulted from “system defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties, or deliberate circumvention.”
The second arm of the investigation will cover ministries, departments, agencies, commissions, councils, parastatals, and other bodies operating within the Federal Government structure.
That process will seek to produce a definitive list of federal entities and verify the legal foundation of each one. It will also scrutinise how such bodies secure government recognition, budgetary allocations, correspondence privileges, office accommodation, and access to official systems.
Procurement procedures, internal audit arrangements, governance structures, and oversight mechanisms will also come under examination.
The Presidency said the review is intended to identify the gaps that allow irregular entities or individuals to gain access to public funds and government resources.
Tinubu has 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 records and systems and work with the ICPC so that its findings complement existing investigations, prosecutions, and recovery efforts.
Rather than limiting the exercise to individual cases, the Presidency said the review would seek to expose weaknesses within the machinery of government and recommend measures to strengthen data verification, financial controls, and accountability.
The administration expects the process to ensure that only legally recognised government bodies and eligible personnel receive access to public resources.
