The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a comprehensive forensic audit of the Federal Government’s payroll, accounting and administrative systems following concerns over the rising cost of salaries and allowances.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja.

Oyedele said the Federal Government had allocated about N9.5 trillion to incremental salary and allowance payments, making it necessary to examine the systems responsible for personnel and wage-related expenditure.

He said the review would include the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and would seek to identify ghost workers, fraudulent personnel records and other payroll irregularities.

According to him, the exercise is aimed at ensuring that government salaries and allowances are paid only to genuine civil servants while preventing leakages of public funds.

Oyedele said eliminating fraudulent personnel and strengthening payroll controls would reduce unnecessary financial pressure on government and improve fiscal management.

The minister also disclosed that the council had considered a major administrative breach involving the creation of fake government agencies.

He said unauthorised individuals had successfully created a fraudulent entity that obtained administrative and Treasury Single Account (TSA) codes, although no funds were eventually released to the fake agency.

Oyedele described the development as a failure of government systems and said the forensic investigation would examine the loopholes that allowed such irregularities to occur.

He added that the review would help strengthen government’s administrative, accounting and payroll systems against future fraud.