President Bola Tinubu has directed Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele to lead a sweeping review of IPPIS and federal agencies following ICPC findings on ghost workers and control failures

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems, including the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, following concerns over ghost workers, payroll fraud and weaknesses in the administration of government agencies.

Also read: Lawmaker, lawyers reject Atiku’s fresh Tinubu credentials claims

Tinubu issued the directive on Friday, August 28, 2026, directing the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee the exercise.

The directive was disclosed in a statement signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

The review follows a resolution of the Federal Executive Council on August 19, 2026, after findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission raised concerns about so-called “fake agencies”, ghost workers and other weaknesses in government controls.

The Tinubu forensic audit is expected to establish the scale of the weaknesses within government systems and determine how those weaknesses may have been exploited to gain access to public resources.

The exercise will have two interconnected components.

The first will focus on government information and financial systems, particularly IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms.

The audit team will examine reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile figures identified by the ICPC and trace how fictitious or ineligible individuals were enrolled on government payroll systems.

It will also review access controls, identity verification, biometric records and bank-account controls used to validate government employees and process payments.

Particular attention will be paid to the connections between IPPIS and other public financial-management platforms, including the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, Remita, the Treasury Single Account and Sub-Treasury Account.

The review will seek to determine whether identified fraud resulted from weaknesses in technology, failures in administrative processes, inadequate separation of duties or deliberate attempts to circumvent established controls.

The second component will examine the structure and operations of Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.

The government wants the exercise to establish a definitive inventory of such entities and verify the legal basis for their existence.

The audit will also examine how government bodies obtain official recognition, receive budgetary consideration, gain correspondence privileges and secure access to offices and government systems.

Governance, procurement, internal audit and oversight mechanisms will also come under scrutiny.

According to the Presidency, the objective is to close systemic gaps that could allow irregular entities or individuals to gain access to public funds and other government resources.

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 work with the ICPC to ensure that the review complements existing investigations, prosecutions and asset-recovery efforts.

The Presidency said the exercise would not be limited to identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failure.

Instead, the broader objective is to strengthen the architecture through which the Federal Government manages personnel, agencies and public finances.

The government said the review would focus on closing systemic loopholes, improving data verification and reconciliation, reinforcing accountability and ensuring that only legally constituted entities and eligible personnel have access to government resources.

The development comes as concerns over payroll integrity and the proliferation of government entities have attracted renewed attention.

The ICPC’s findings provided the immediate trigger for the Federal Executive Council’s decision, with the latest presidential directive seeking to move beyond individual cases and examine the systems that allowed irregularities to occur.

For Oyedele, the assignment will involve coordinating a review that cuts across payroll administration, financial management, personnel records and the institutional structure of the Federal Government.

The outcome could provide the administration with a clearer picture of weaknesses within some of the systems responsible for managing public resources and identifying government personnel.

The Presidency said the Tinubu forensic audit ultimately forms part of the administration’s effort to strengthen transparency, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.

Also read: JUST IN: Tinubu meets APC governors ahead of 2027 poll

The exercise is also expected to provide a basis for reforms where systemic weaknesses are identified, with the government seeking to make its controls more resistant to fraud, manipulation and administrative abuse.