The Audit Service has issued an apology after a major error in its nationwide payroll audit report wrongly linked a public servant, Frank Oliver Kpodo, to an unearned salary exceeding GH₵427 million.
“We wish to state that the amount attributed to Mr. Kpodo above was due to a transpositional error. The GH₵427,995,661.40 relates to the Ministry of Education in respect of 3,476 unaccounted staff during the payroll audit,” the statement said.
The clarification comes after a Fourth Estate investigation published on Monday suggested that Mr Kpodo received an average of more than GH¢14 million monthly in unearned payments.
For 29 months, a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence received over GHS427 million in unearned salaries – an average of more than GHS14 million per month.
Frank Oliver Kpodo was at the time serving as Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Defence.
His unearned… pic.twitter.com/iuJEmcIDxF
— The Fourth Estate (@fourthestategh) April 20, 2026
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department says no government employee can receive as much as GH¢427 million over 29 months, insisting Ghana’s payroll system prevents such occurrences.
“The Government of Ghana payroll system runs on controls and automations which allow only approved pay structures by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to be processed for employees eligible by their conditions of service,” the department said.
Following the developments, the Fourth Estate has republished the Audit Service’s clarification.
Also on X, the lawyer of Mr. Kpodo has hinted at a lawsuit.
The truth is, this simply did not happen.
But as of 6:15 am on April 21, 2026, this post has 603K+ views. This is not counting engagement metrics on other social media portals or on the site itself. Nor does it include the number of times screenshots of it have been taken and… https://t.co/vU05c3V0fh
— Elikplim Simon-Pomary (@princeganaku) April 21, 2026