Ghana Audit Service has issued an unreserved apology to former Procurement Director at the Ministry of Defence, Frank Oliver Kpodo, after wrongly linking him to a payroll fraud case involving GH¢427 million in alleged unearned salaries.
The error stemmed from findings in the Auditor-General’s Nationwide Payroll Audit covering the period January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2025, originally dated November 20, 2025, in which Kpodo was mistakenly cited.
Kpodo, now Director of Finance and Administration at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, had earlier appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on March 31, 2026, over separate allegations relating to falsified documents in a GH¢4.8 million deal involving six undelivered election vehicles.
His name resurfaced in connection with the payroll scandal following a report by The Fourth Estate, which referenced the Auditor-General’s audit findings.
How a civil servant allegedly earned GH¢427 million without working for 29 months
However, in a statement issued on April 21, 2026, the Audit Service clarified that the figure attributed to Kpodo was the result of a transpositional error.
“We wish to state that the amount attributed to Mr. Kpodo 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.
“We offer our most sincere and unreserved apologies to Mr. Frank Oliver Kpodo for the distress and unwarranted public scrutiny this error may have caused,” the Service added.
Prior to the clarification, Kpodo had rejected the allegations, describing them as “worrying and surprising,” and insisting he could not “imagine how that can happen.”
He maintained that his salaries were processed through the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department with verifiable pay slips and said he was unaware of any irregularities.
He also explained that salary validation at the Ministry of Defence is handled by the Human Resource Unit and the Chief Director’s Office, adding that he had not been contacted by the Audit Service regarding the matter.
