Govt orders probe of military payroll, sets up audit team

Following damning revelations from the trial of some Air Force chiefs in the past administration, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has ordered investigation into all military formation payroll in the country.

The action, according to the Director of Information in the Ministry, Alhaji Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta was taken following revelations in the course of the trial of the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, at the Federal High Court, Abuja where it is alleged that the sum of N558.2 million was allegedly diverted monthly from the Nigeria Air Force account into private pockets.

Accordingly, a continuous audit team headed by the Director of Special Projects in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Mohammed Kyari Dikwa has been charged with the responsibility of scrutinizing the payrolls of the three services, which have not yet been put on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), to ensure that all possible loopholes that could lead to leakages were blocked in the three services of the Air Force, the Navy and the Army.

The exercise, Dambatta said will be conducted pending the biometric capturing and migrating the payroll of the three services to the IPPIS, in line with the policy of the Federal Government to clean up the payroll of all public sector employees.

He said the Minister of Finance said that the measure has become necessary as part of the change mantra of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, which include the restoration of the culture of transparency, accountability and control in the management of public funds.
The Continuous Audit Process was one of the initiatives by the Minister approved by President Muhammadu Buhari as part of the on-going reforms in the public finance management system of the federal government, which he emphasised in his 2016 Budget speech.