The Office of the Auditor-General has offered an apology after a major mistake in its nationwide payroll audit report wrongly tied a public servant to an unearned salary of over GH₵427 million.
The clarification follows the nationwide payroll audit covering January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025, after a media report named Frank Oliver Kpodo as having received GH₵427,995,661.40 in unearned salary.
The sum was first flagged in a report by The Fourth Estate, which indicated that Mr Kpodo got an average of more than GH¢14 million monthly in unearned payments.
In a statement on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the Auditor-General’s office said the amount stemmed from a transpositional error and was not linked to Mr Kpodo.“
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 Auditor-General extended an apology to Mr Kpodo, the government, citizens, and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, recognising the effect of the mistake.
“We extend our most sincere and unreserved apologies to Frank Oliver Kpodo for the distress and unwarranted public scrutiny this error may have caused.”
Meanwhile, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) has dismissed claims circulating on social media that a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence received unearned salaries totalling GH¢427 million over 29 months, insisting Ghana’s payroll system stops such cases.
“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.
It explained that salaries pass through multiple levels of checks, including sign-offs by heads of covered entities and internal reviews to stop irregularities and overpayments.“Monthly salaries are paid to eligible employees on the Government of Ghana payroll after online validation…
These monthly payments are further subjected to internal quality processes to validate each salary payment,” it added.
