By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA – The Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Wednesday approved the launch of a holistic investigation into payroll irregularities involving the Office of the Attorney General and multiple agencies.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the presidential Villa, Abuja.

The minister said a key focus is reviewing the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, to identify fake agencies and ghost employees.

“This initiative aims at protecting federal funds and ensuring salaries reach legitimate civil servants. Recent data reveals that ₦9.5 trillion has been allocated to incremental salary and allowance payments, a figure exceeding recent subsidy savings.”

The minister said that by eliminating fraudulent personnel, the administration intends to optimize governance, prevent further financial constraints and ensure that resources are used effectively for those performing essential public service roles.

He said that the Attorney General’s office will collaborate with other agencies to eliminate fake agencies and personnel, ensuring accurate payroll and safeguarding civil servant salaries.

Accord to him: “The meeting addressed a  significant security breach involving the creation of fraudulent agencies within the federal government. These fake entities successfully obtained administrative and TSA codes, though no funds were disbursed.”

He said following the Independent Corrupt  Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) investigation, the President identified systemic failures in both accounting and administrative processes.

“Consequently, the Attorney General and Minister of Finance have been mandated to engage professional  audit firms to conduct forensic evaluation of these systems.

“The objective is to identify existing lapses, plug vulnerabilities, and prevent future occurrences of such national embarrassments by strengthening oversight across all governmental institutions.”

The Minister said that the unauthorized individuals colluded to create a fake agency within the federal government.

He said the fraudulent entity successfully obtained administrative codes and TSA codes despite not receiving any actual payments.

Oyedele described the incident as a collective responsibility involving failures within the federal government system.

He, however, said that further details regarding the specific identities of the fake agencies are currently unavailable.

The minister recalled that the ICPC conducted an investigation and submitted a report to the President regarding the discrepancies.

“The report revealed that the fraud extends beyond a presidential welfare system to include a fake presidential foreign promotion council and other agencies.”

Oyedele said President Tinubu has mandated the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Finance to examine both administrative and accounting lapses.

He said professional audit firms will be hired to perform forensic audits of both systems  to prevent future national embarrassments.

“There is a concern that these systemic vulnerabilities may have existed for longer than the current administration’s tenure.”