The Problem of Fake Agencies and Ghost Workers in Nigeria

The recent scandal about fake government agencies and ghost workers is not just another corruption story in Nigeria's long history of public-sector issues. It should be seen as a serious look into how the government is run. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's choice to order a full audit of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and other federal agencies is very timely.

The audit will be led by Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele. It will look into payroll records, personnel and pension systems, bank accounts, and how these connect with IPPIS, GIFMIS (Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System), Remita, and the Treasury Single Account.

But we must ask: why did it take another scandal for the government to examine its structure? This is a bigger issue.

The finding of the fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and other ghost agencies is shocking. It is even more alarming that PFIPC, one of these fake groups, reportedly got a ₦1.3 billion budget allocation for 2026. This raises a big question: if a non-existent agency can make it into the budget, what else is hidden in the system?

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) also found another fake agency. They reported that the person behind it created more fake entities with forged documents and bank accounts. This is not just about one fraudster; it shows a system that is broken and has enough loopholes for fraud to thrive.

We must also consider the Stephen Oronsaye Report, which has been ignored since it was submitted in 2012. This report looked into the structure of federal agencies and the cost of governance.

The report pointed out issues like duplication, overlapping responsibilities, and unnecessary agencies. It recommended cutting down from 263 statutory agencies to 161, abolishing 38, merging 52, and turning 14 back into departments within ministries.

In February 2024, President Tinubu’s Federal Executive Council approved the implementation of this report. They planned to scrap, merge, or relocate agencies. An implementation committee was set up with a 12-week deadline.

So, what happened next?

That is the question Nigerians should be asking. Over two years after the presidential approval, it seems the implementation has not been thorough. The government has even continued to create new agencies with overlapping functions.

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) recently highlighted this issue, showing that new agencies keep popping up even with the promise of rationalization. The government’s credibility is on the line as it cannot support and reject the same thing at once. If the cost of governance is too high, why create more ministries and agencies?

Instead of a leaner government, the political system treats the creation of agencies as a way to reward interests and distribute jobs. I believe President Tinubu is now ready to take strong action because of the embarrassing ICPC findings.

But why is the Oronsaye Report so hard to implement?

The uncomfortable truth is that reforms threaten powerful interests. Every agency has people in charge, board members, and budgets. Merging agencies might save money, but it also means some positions will disappear.

On the other hand, cutting an agency means losing jobs and reducing political appointments. Politicians understand that making government smaller has political repercussions. This is why the Oronsaye Report has survived three administrations. Jonathan did not fully implement it. Buhari ignored it. Tinubu announced implementation in 2024, but it is still not complete.

The ICIR’s recent findings are telling: despite the 2024 approval, implementation has been partial, while new bills keep coming up. But there is another issue: legislation.

Some agencies cannot just vanish because they were created by laws. Merging some of them requires changing the law. For instance, putting the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission into another agency needs a constitutional amendment.

But that should not be an excuse for inaction. The federal government knows which agencies need legal changes and which can be merged without it. What about redundant agencies that can go back to ministries? The government knows them. Reform could have been done in phases with clear goals.

This brings us to the ghost-worker issue, which is also telling. Nigeria has spent a lot on payroll technology, which is why IPPIS was supposed to stop the kind of fraud we are seeing now.

If fake names or wrong bank accounts can still get into the payroll system, then the issue is not just about whether IPPIS exists. It is about whether the controls around it actually work. And if workers living abroad are receiving salaries from the civil service, that would be an even bigger scandal.

The ICPC has reported recovering over ₦24 billion tied to ghost workers’ pensions and has obtained forfeiture orders for more than 900 suspected ghost workers. This is a serious indictment of the system.

The President’s audit is welcome, but it must not turn into another exercise that just produces a report that sits on a shelf. What we are facing is poor rule enforcement and ignoring existing laws and recommendations, not a lack of reports.

What has happened to past white papers and audit reports? We have reform programs and anti-corruption agencies, but we often lack the will to follow through. This is a governance failure that has persisted since 1999.

The key lesson from the fake agency scandal is that corruption does not always need complex technology. Sometimes, it just needs negligence. How could a non-existent agency get recognized, open accounts, and be included in the national budget? This scandal shows poor management.

How could so many bureaucrats fail to ask the basic question: where is the law that allows this? These are questions that should be part of the audit by Taiwo Oyedele and his team. The President has rightly said the audit should look beyond individual cases to the overall structure of government. That is exactly what is needed, but it must lead to real changes.

If the audit finds 50 weaknesses and the government only fixes individual cases, we will be back here again. The goal should be to make it hard, not just illegal, for a fake agency or ghost worker to enter the system. The Oronsaye Report should be the starting point for cleaning up a confusing system. The government must resist the urge to set up another committee to review it.

The report is old, meaning some recommendations may need updates, but the central issue remains: too many institutions have overlapping duties at too high a cost.

Indeed, a recent analysis found that Nigeria has over 900 MDAs, possibly more, with significant annual losses tied to the many agencies.

The solution is not another report. While the Taiwo Oyedele Committee is working hard on the President’s directive, the government should publish the Oronsaye Implementation Matrix. This should show which agencies have been scrapped, merged, or need legislation. If implementation stalled at any point, who is now responsible for completing each task? There should also be a deadline for updates.

Plus, no new federal agency should be created without proving that its work cannot be done by an existing one. This should be a rule moving forward. President Tinubu deserves praise for ordering the audit, but Nigerians should not judge it just by how many ghost workers or fake agencies are found. They should look at what happens after the findings.

Will the government get back the money and will those responsible face charges? Those who failed to supervise should be held accountable. We also want to see if overlapping agencies were actually merged and if unnecessary agencies disappeared.

Without taking anything away from Taiwo Oyedele’s Committee Report, the number of government agencies must be cut down, and payroll checks should be ongoing instead of occasional. The government should also stop creating the conditions that allow these scandals to happen.

Meanwhile, how many issues in government are still hidden because no one is checking? Who are the people behind these fake agencies and ghost workers? If they really exist, why can’t we find them? That is why this scandal should not be viewed as just another anti-corruption story but as a governance issue.

The Oronsaye Report offers a proven way to streamline government, cut down on duplication, and lower costs. The Tinubu administration should take it seriously. If the government wants to fight ghost workers and fake agencies, it must do more than just treat the symptoms by changing the system that allows them.