President Bola Ahmed Tinubu President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive forensic audit of federal government systems.

The audit will include a review of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), federal government agencies, and their administration and internal controls.

President Tinubu’s directive follows the Federal Executive Council’s resolution on August 19, 2026, in response to findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on “fake agencies,” ghost workers, and other control failures.

The exercise will establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in the government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement released Friday.

He said the review would comprise two interconnected components -the first will focus on a forensic audit of government systems, particularly IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms.

“It will examine reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile the figures identified by the ICPC, trace how fictitious or ineligible persons were enrolled, and review access, identity, biometric and bank-account controls.”

He said the exercise would also examine the interfaces between IPPIS and other government platforms, including GIFMIS, Remita, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Sub-TSA, to determine whether fraud resulted from system defects, process failures, and inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention.

He said the second component of the audit would cover all federal government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatal and other government bodies.

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

He said the exercise would assess governance, procurement, internal-audit, and oversight controls across the government to close systemic weaknesses that could allow irregular entities or persons to access public resources.

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

He said the audit team would have access to relevant government systems and records; it will collaborate with the ICPC to ensure that the review complements all on-going investigations, prosecutions and recoveries. 

President Tinubu said he expected the exercise to go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failure by strengthening the architecture of the government, closing systemic loopholes, improving data verification, and reconciliation, reinforcing accountability, and ensuring that only duly constituted entities and eligible personnel have access to government’s resources.