President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic audit of Nigeria’s federal payroll, personnel and financial management systems amid concerns over ghost workers, allegedly fictitious government agencies and weaknesses in the controls governing access to public funds.
The audit will include a review of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), as well as ministries, departments, agencies, commissions, councils, parastatals and other federal government institutions.
Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee the exercise, according to a statement issued by presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga.
The directive follows a resolution of the Federal Executive Council on August 19, 2026, prompted by findings from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) concerning “fake agencies,” ghost workers and other failures in government control systems.
Audit to examine payroll and financial systems
The first phase of the exercise will focus on IPPIS and related payroll, pension, personnel and financial-management platforms.
Investigators will examine reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile figures identified by the ICPC and establish how fictitious or ineligible individuals may have been added to the government payroll.
The review will also scrutinise identity and biometric verification, bank-account controls and system access mechanisms to determine how irregular entries were created or maintained.
Particular attention will be paid to the links 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 exercise will seek to determine whether identified irregularities resulted from weaknesses in technology systems, failures in administrative processes, inadequate separation of duties or deliberate efforts to circumvent established controls.
Government agencies to face legal-status review
The second component of the audit will extend beyond payroll systems to the wider architecture of the federal government.
Authorities will compile a definitive inventory of federal ministries, departments, agencies, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies and verify the legal basis for their existence.
The review will examine how government entities obtain official recognition, receive budgetary allocations, secure correspondence privileges, obtain office facilities and gain access to government information and financial systems.
Procurement procedures, internal audit arrangements, governance structures and oversight mechanisms will also be assessed.
The objective, according to the Presidency, is to identify and close loopholes that could enable irregular entities or individuals to gain access to public resources.
Tinubu seeks stronger controls
Tinubu has directed that the exercise be conducted with what the Presidency described as the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.
The audit team will have access to relevant government systems and records and will work with the ICPC to complement existing investigations, prosecutions and asset-recovery efforts.
The government said the exercise is intended to go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud. It is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s public-sector control architecture, improve data verification and reconciliation, tighten accountability and ensure that only legally constituted government entities and eligible personnel can access public resources.
The move comes as the Tinubu administration seeks to strengthen fiscal governance and improve the efficiency of public spending amid broader economic reforms.
