President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic audit of the Federal Government’s personnel, payroll and administrative systems, including the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), following revelations of ghost workers, fake government agencies and other control failures.

The President directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee and coordinate the exercise, which will cover Federal Government ministries, departments, agencies, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.

The directive was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

According to the statement, the decision followed a resolution of the Federal Executive Council on August 19, 2026, based on findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) concerning “fake agencies,” ghost workers and weaknesses in government control systems.

The audit is expected to determine the nature and extent of the weaknesses and establish how they may have been exploited to gain access to public resources.

The exercise will have two major components.

The first component will focus on a forensic examination of government systems, particularly 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 persons were enrolled on government payrolls.

It will also scrutinise access controls, identity verification, biometric records and bank-account information used in the personnel and payroll systems.

The review will further examine 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 objective, the statement said, is to determine whether identified irregularities resulted from system defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention of established controls.

The second component will extend the audit to all Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government institutions.

The exercise will seek to establish a definitive inventory of government bodies and verify the legal basis for their existence.

It will also examine how entities secure official recognition, gain access to budgetary provisions and correspondence privileges, obtain government office facilities and connect to government systems.

In addition, the audit will assess governance, procurement, internal-audit and oversight mechanisms across the Federal Government, with the aim of identifying and closing systemic loopholes that could enable irregular entities or individuals to access public funds and other government 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 have access to relevant government systems and records and will work with the ICPC to ensure that the exercise complements ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recovery efforts.

The President said the exercise should go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failures.

Rather, it is expected to strengthen the overall architecture of government by closing systemic loopholes, improving data verification and reconciliation, reinforcing accountability and ensuring that only legally constituted government entities and eligible personnel have access to public resources.

The Presidency said the exercise forms part of Tinubu’s broader efforts to strengthen transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.