Tinubu Orders Forensic Audit of IPPIS, Federal Ministries, Agencies

 

By Abdulahi Musa 

 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems, including the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and all federal ministries, departments and agencies.

The directive, announced on Friday, followed a resolution of the Federal Executive Council on August 19, 2026, in response to findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission concerning alleged fake government agencies, ghost workers and other control failures.

According to a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the audit is designed to establish the nature and extent of weaknesses within the government’s control systems and determine how such weaknesses may have been exploited.

The exercise will have two major components.

The first component will involve a forensic examination of IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms.

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

It will also scrutinise access, identity, biometric and bank-account controls, as well as the relationship between IPPIS and other government platforms, including the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, Remita, Treasury Single Account and Sub-Treasury Single Account.

The review will seek to determine whether identified irregularities resulted from system defects, procedural failures, inadequate separation of duties or deliberate circumvention of established controls.

The second component will cover federal government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.

The exercise will establish a definitive inventory of such entities and verify their legal basis, while examining how organisations obtain official recognition, budgetary consideration, correspondence privileges, office facilities and access to government systems.

The audit will further assess governance, procurement, internal audit and oversight mechanisms across government, with the aim of identifying and closing systemic loopholes that could allow irregular entities or individuals to gain access to public resources.

President Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted in accordance with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.

The audit team will be granted access to relevant government records and systems and will work with the ICPC to ensure that the exercise complements ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recovery efforts.

Onanuga said the President expected the exercise to go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failures.

According to him, the broader objective is to strengthen the architecture of government, eliminate systemic loopholes, improve data verification and reconciliation, reinforce accountability and ensure that only legally constituted entities and eligible personnel have access to government resources.

The exercise, the Presidency said, underscores Tinubu’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.