By Boluwatife Oshadiya | August 27, 2026
Key Points
- ICPC faults the Budget Office for onboarding the purported PFIPC into the 2026 federal budget without independently verifying its legal status
- Investigators say the Budget Office converted a proposed ₦3.85 billion personnel cost into a ₦1.3 billion allocation using the public service salary structure
- ICPC says weaknesses in verification and internal controls created a gap that allowed the purported agency into the budget
Main Story
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has faulted the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) for including the purported PFIPC in Nigeria’s 2026 federal budget without adequate verification.
The finding is contained in the commission’s investigation into the purported agency, which the Federal Government has said was never legally established.
According to the ICPC, the Budget Office relied on an administrative code issued by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and establishment-related documents attributed to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation without independently confirming their authenticity.
The investigation found that the Budget Office received a PFIPC budget proposal on August 20, 2025, with a proposed personnel cost of ₦3.85 billion. Because there was no approved salary structure from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the office recalculated the personnel component using the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure.
The resulting allocation was about ₦1.3 billion, comprising ₦802 million for personnel, ₦200 million for overhead and ₦300 million for capital expenditure.
The ICPC said the purported PFIPC did not submit estimates for overhead and capital expenditure, with the Budget Office instead determining those figures using comparisons with similar agencies and the proposed personnel structure.
The commission found that the Budget Office proceeded despite incomplete documentation and relied on informal engagements and scanned approvals that had not been independently verified.
However, the investigation found no evidence that the budgetary provision was subsequently released, cash-backed, paid or spent. The Budget Office had previously said the allocation remained at the appropriation stage because the statutory conditions for expenditure were not met.
What’s Being Said
“The conclusion is firm. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn, and not one kobo was drawn,” said Tanimu Yakubu, Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, while defending the office’s handling of the allocation before the House of Representatives committee.
ICPC said the Budget Office’s verification failures exposed a broader weakness in the process for onboarding newly established government institutions and recommended tighter requirements before such bodies are admitted into the federal budget.
What’s Next
- ICPC has recommended that the Budget Office make complete establishment instruments and mandatory budget documents prerequisites for onboarding new ministries, departments and agencies
- The commission is expected to continue examining how the purported PFIPC passed through government verification and budget processes
- The House of Representatives’ separate investigation into the PFIPC controversy remains part of the broader effort to determine how the purported agency entered the 2026 budget
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line: The key failure identified by ICPC was not the size of the PFIPC allocation but the absence of independent verification before a purported government entity entered the national budget. The case exposes a control weakness with implications for the integrity of Nigeria’s budget onboarding process.
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