The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered N49.9 billion inserted in the 2022 budget as salaries for ghost workers between January and June.

The anti-corruption agency also said that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Federal Government padded the 2022 budget with duplicated projects amounting to N100 billion.

This shot the current year’s budget to N17.12 trillion.

ICPC’s Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasannoye, made these known in Abuja on Thursday.

He made the submissions at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance on the 2022-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

He said the ICPC discovered the projects duplication and budget padding during a scrutiny of projects approved for the various MDAs.

ICPC: How MDAs padded 2021, 2022 budgets with N400bn projects

“Federal Government would have wasted another N100 billion in the 2022 budget if not tracked and intercepted by the ICPC.

“The same pre-emptive move saved the country from spending N49.9 billion on payment of salaries to ghost workers inserted into payrolls by the fraudulent MDAs between January and June this year.

“Names of MDAs involved in projects duplication and fictitious payrolls are available and will be forwarded to the committee,” he said.

Owasannoye explained that ICPC’s interception ensured that monies for the fraudulent acts were prevented from being released to the affected MDAs.

“It is gratifying that the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant-General’s Office cooperated with us,” he stressed.

The Star