The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered 908 suspected ghost workers across 50 federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), recovering about N942 million allegedly paid as fraudulent salaries during a nationwide payroll verification exercise.
ICPC Chairman, Mr Musa Adamu Aliyu (SAN), disclosed the findings while speaking on the commission’s ongoing investigation into payroll fraud in federal government institutions.
The anti-graft agency said the exercise exposed widespread payroll irregularities, with the Nigeria Police Force accounting for the highest number of suspected ghost workers.
“For this operation, we identified 570 people whom we suspect are among the fake workers collecting salaries without working,” Mr Aliyu said.
Beyond the police, several MDAs were also found to have significant payroll discrepancies. The National Water Resources Authority recorded 80 suspected ghost workers.
“For this agency, we identified 80 names of people collecting salaries even though they are not workers of the agency,” the ICPC chairman stated.
The Federal Ministry of Works recorded 56 suspected ghost workers, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had 24. The Ministry of Defence was found to have 19 suspected fake workers.
“For the Ministry of Defence, we identified 19 people acting as fake workers,” Mr Aliyu added.
The Federal Ministry of Power and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment each recorded 17 suspected ghost workers, while the Federal Ministry of Health had 15. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation recorded 12 suspected fake workers.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Interior were also listed among the institutions affected by the payroll fraud, although the ICPC did not disclose the number of suspected ghost workers identified in the two organisations.
Explaining the scheme, Mr Aliyu said ghost workers are fictitious names inserted into government payrolls to fraudulently receive salaries.
“In some cases, officials add the names of their relatives or associates to the payroll even though they are not employees, and they continue collecting the salaries,” he said.
He cited one case uncovered during the investigation, revealing that, “We found a case where one person put the names of his wife, son and mother-in-law on the payroll while also collecting the salaries of 12 workers.”
He said the payroll verification exercise forms part of the commission’s broader efforts to eliminate leakages in the public service, improve accountability in MDAs and ensure that government salaries are paid only to legitimate employees.