The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered 908 suspected ghost workers across no fewer than 50 Federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), with the Nigeria Police Force topping the list of institutions affected by the payroll fraud.
The anti-graft agency said its ongoing payroll verification exercise has also led to the recovery of about N942 million allegedly paid out as fraudulent salaries as investigations continue into what it described as a widespread abuse of the Federal Government’s payroll system.
Musa Aliyu, ICPC Chairman, disclosed the findings while speaking on the commission’s ongoing investigation into payroll fraud across federal government institutions, according to a BBC Pidgin report monitored on Wednesday.
Aliyu explained that the exercise, which commenced in 2024, was designed to identify fictitious employees and eliminate fraudulent salary payments from the federal payroll.
According to him, ghost workers are fictitious names illegally inserted into government payrolls to facilitate the diversion of public funds through salaries paid to individuals who do not exist or are not legitimate employees.
He added that in some instances, public officials allegedly enlist family members, friends, or associates as government workers despite them having no employment relationship with the affected institutions.
The ICPC chairman cited one of the cases uncovered during the investigation, alleging that a government official placed the names of his wife, son, and mother-in-law on the payroll while simultaneously collecting the salaries of 12 legitimate workers.
The commission said the Nigeria Police Force recorded the highest number of suspected ghost workers among all institutions investigated.
Aliyu revealed that investigators identified 570 suspected fake workers within the police payroll.
“For this operation, we identified 570 people whom we suspect are among the fake workers collecting salaries without working,” he said.
The National Water Resources Authority ranked second with 80 suspected ghost workers, while the Federal Ministry of Works recorded 56 suspected fake employees.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had 24 suspected ghost workers, while the Federal Ministry of Defence recorded 19.
Aliyu said, “For the Ministry of Defence, we identified 19 people acting as fake workers.”
The investigation also identified 17 suspected ghost workers each in the Federal Ministry of Electricity and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
Similarly, the Federal Ministry of Health recorded 15 suspected fake workers, while the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had 12.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Interior were also listed among institutions affected by the payroll fraud.
However, the ICPC did not disclose the number of suspected ghost workers identified in the two organisations.
The commission noted that the payroll verification exercise remains ongoing and forms part of broader efforts to sanitise the federal payroll system, improve accountability in public service and curb the diversion of government funds through fraudulent salary payments.
According to the ICPC, investigations launched in 2024 are still underway, with additional recoveries and possible prosecutions expected as more evidence emerges from the exercise.
