Audit Service Admits to Error Leading to Report Public Servant Was Paid GH¢427m in Unearned Salaries
- Audit Service admitted to a blunder, wrongly linking a civil servant to GH¢427 million in unearned salaries
- It was initially thought that senior civil servant Frank Oliver Kpodo was accused of pocketing GH¢427 million in unearned salaries
- Kpodo denied the allegations, claiming the processing was above board and that pay slips can be independently verified
The Auditor Service has admitted a major error in its nationwide payroll audit report, causing a civil servant to be accused of receiving over GH¢427 million in unearned salaries over 29 months.
The service clarified that the amount was not received by Frank Oliver Kpodo, who was the Director of Procurement at the Defence Ministry, but rather related to payroll irregularities involving 3,476 unaccounted staff under the Ministry of Education.
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In a statement following a report by The Fourth Estate on the incident, the service said the amount attributed to Kpodo was due to a transpositional error.
The Audit Service also apologised to Kpodo, saying the mistake had caused him distress and subjected him to unnecessary public scrutiny.
According to the corrected figures, the Ministry of Education had the most payroll anomalies, with 3,476 unaccounted staff valued at the GH¢428 million.
Kpodo was also not cleared of the allegations of receiving unearned salaries. He is instead said to have received GH¢422,920, not GH¢428 million.
The Ministry of Health followed with 1,363 unaccounted staff worth GH¢166,869,874.19, while the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had 597 staff valued at GH¢84,777,594.97.
In all, the payroll audit identified 6,270 unaccounted staff across 34 public institutions, with a combined value of GH¢801,808,427.04.
Before the clarification, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department rejected the reports that Kpodo received unearned salaries totalling GH¢427 million over 29 months.
It insisted that Ghana’s payroll system makes such payments “impossible.”
Kpodo denied unearned salary allegations
Kpodo responded to the allegations and denied any wrongdoing. He also claimed that the findings were surprising to him.
He said his salaries were processed through the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, and he has pay slips that can be independently verified.
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Kpodo moved to the Ministry of Defence in 2018, where his role as Director of Procurement drew considerable scrutiny and consternation at a recent hearing of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.
In his Payroll Audit Report for 2025, the Auditor-General recommended that this name be deleted from the payroll, along with 6,000 others.
Akufo-Addo appointee accused of payroll fraud
YEN.com.gh reported that the former Director-General of the National Service Authority, Osei Assibey Antwi, was posted as a volunteer within the national service scheme while he was an appointee.
This was one of the notable instances of payroll fraud involving top public servants in recent times.
According to the technical and forensic audit of the National Service Authority, this occurred during the 2022/2023 service year, about a year after he took office.
Source: YEN.com.gh
