President Bola Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic investigation into the creation of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and other fake agencies uncovered within the Federal Government system.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting, presided over by Tinubu, was the first FEC session since June 29.
Oyedele said the decision followed updates presented to the President on the investigation conducted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). He said the probe revealed that the fake council was not an isolated case, prompting the President to order a wider examination of government processes and internal controls.
According to him, findings from the ICPC showed that additional fake agencies exist beyond the PFIPC, and the council has now directed a forensic investigation into the internal control weaknesses that allowed such entities to be created.
“What is important is to establish what went wrong, how it can be prevented, and going forward, how we can make our systems stronger,” Oyedele said. “Systems are built when you find problems, you deal with them decisively, and that’s exactly what Mr President and council have directed today.”
Payroll System To Be Reviewed
Oyedele said Tinubu had also directed that the review be extended to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), noting that the existence of fake agencies raised concerns about the possibility of fictitious workers on the federal payroll.
“If you have fake agencies, you most likely have fake employees,” he said, adding that the government could not afford ghost workers undermining efforts to improve salaries and wages for genuine civil servants.
The minister disclosed that ₦9.495 trillion generated from subsidy savings and increased revenue had been used to fund additional salaries and allowances for civil servants, an amount higher than the actual savings realised from the removal of the petrol subsidy.
How Fake Agencies Got Government Codes
Oyedele said the investigation would also probe how the fictitious agencies managed to secure administrative and Treasury Single Account (TSA) codes within the federal system. He noted that although the fake entities had progressed to the stage of obtaining accounts, no government funds were paid into them.
“It’s gone too far to even get to that level. Now the idea is we want to find out what went wrong and strengthen the system,” he said.
He added that the Attorney-General of the Federation and his ministry had been directed to work with relevant government institutions to tackle the issue from administrative, accounting and governance perspectives.
Idris: More Fake Agencies Found
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said ICPC’s findings showed the problem went beyond the PFIPC, with investigators identifying at least two other fictitious agencies operating within the system.
“This is not just about accounting; it is also about the administrative looseness that was discovered by the ICPC,” Idris said.
He said Tinubu had directed the Attorney-General and Finance Minister to jointly review government administrative and accounting procedures, and to engage professional audit firms for a comprehensive forensic review aimed at permanently closing the loopholes.
“I want you to know that this didn’t just happen now. It is possible that this dates back longer than when the President was in office,” Idris said, adding that Tinubu was also looking into the possibility that similar infiltration may have occurred elsewhere in government, with a view to blocking any recurrence.
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