President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered a forensic investigation into the processes and internal controls that allowed alleged fake government agencies to operate within the Federal Government system.
The probe will also include a comprehensive review of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) to determine whether fictitious employees may have been captured on the government payroll.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents on the decisions reached at Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
Oyedele said the directive followed the discovery of an alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, which raised concerns over the administrative, accounting and governance procedures that allowed the entity to operate within the government system.
He said the review of IPPIS was necessary because the existence of fake agencies could indicate the presence of fake personnel on the Federal Government payroll.
“If you have fake agencies, you most likely have fake employees,” Oyedele said, stressing that the government could not afford fictitious workers on its payroll while increasing salaries and allowances for genuine civil servants.
The minister disclosed that the Federal Government had spent between N9.4 trillion and N9.5 trillion on incremental salary and allowance payments to civil servants.
He said the government would not allow alleged fake agencies and personnel to further increase pressure on public finances.
Oyedele added that the Ministry of Finance would work with the Attorney-General of the Federation and other relevant agencies to identify loopholes that enabled the alleged irregularities and strengthen existing government systems.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said President Tinubu had earlier referred the matter to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for investigation.
According to Idris, the ICPC investigation revealed that the issue went beyond the agency initially under investigation, with at least two additional alleged fake agencies identified.
He said the problem involved both accounting procedures and administrative weaknesses within the Federal Government system.
Idris explained that President Tinubu subsequently directed the Attorney-General and the Minister of Finance to undertake a comprehensive review and engage professional auditors to examine the accounting and administrative aspects of the system.
The minister said the objective was to identify and permanently close the loopholes responsible for the irregularities and prevent similar occurrences in the future.
He added that some of the issues might have originated before the Tinubu administration, stressing that the government was interested in addressing weaknesses in the broader system rather than focusing only on the immediate case.
The officials, however, declined to disclose the identities of the other alleged fake agencies or the specific financial implications of their activities.
The Federal Government is expected to provide further details as the forensic investigation progresses.