The Fourth Estate has announced that they have taken down their original publication on the latest Auditor-General report on nationwide payroll irregularities after they attributed the GHS427 million to Mr Frank Oliver Kpodo, a former Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Defence.
The development comes after the Auditor-General, in a press release dated April 21, 2026, stated that the GH¢427,995,661.40 in unearned salaries relates to payroll irregularities involving 3,476 unaccounted staff under the Ministry of Education.
It will be recalled that earlier reports by the Fourth Estate detailed that Frank Oliver Kpodo, a former Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Defence, has been exposed for allegedly receiving over GHS427 million in unearned salaries.
Reports suggest that Frank Oliver Kpodo received an average of more than GHS14 million per month.
The Fourth Estate in a post on X highlighted how Frank Oliver Kpodo’s unearned salaries featured prominently in a recent report by the Auditor-General between January 2023 and June 2025.
However, in a Facebook post, the Fourth Estate has announced that they have deleted” GHC427m payroll story on Frank Kpodo after the Auditor General apologised for a massive error.
The Fourth Estate Facebook post stated, “Following The Fourth Estate’s publication on the latest Auditor-General report on nationwide payroll irregularities, the Audit Service now says the GHS427 million attributed to Mr Frank Oliver Kpodo, a former Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Defence, was a transpositional error.
According to a statement issued by the Service and signed by its Right to Information Officer, Frederick Lokko, the actual figure in Mr Kpodo’s name is GHS422,920.01.
According to the Audit Service, it made an error in attributing the figure to Mr Kpodo.
“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 statement said. “We further extend our apologies to the Government and people of Ghana, and the Controller and Accountant-General for the transpositional error noted above.”
The Audit Service further explained that the figure originally attributed to Mr Kpodo should rather have been in the name of the Ministry of Education.
“We wish to state that the amount attributed to Mr Kpodo above was due to a transpositional error. The GHC427,995,661.40 relates to the Ministry of Education in respect of 3,476 unaccounted staff during the payroll audit,” the statement said.
Also, the Audit Service produced a corrected table of 34 Ministries and Departments that could not account for over GHS800 million paid to their staff.
In the corrected list, The Fourth Estate has found that the Audit Service made several “transpositional” errors in the original report, which has been submitted to parliament.
Figures attributed to 27 of the 34 Ministries and Departments in the original report have been changed.
Also, in a separate statement, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department says it is impossible for any government employee to receive unearned salaries.
Following the development and the corrections made by the Auditor General in its Audit report, which formed the basis of the original story by The Fourth Estate, we have taken down the original publication.”
However, a lawyer for Frank Oliver Kpodo, Prince Ganaku, has revealed his client is considering legal action against media organisation The Fourth Estate.
This comes after The Fourth Estate publication, which alleged that Frank Oliver Kpodo received unearned salaries totalling GH¢427 million.
According to Kpodo’s lawyer, the publication has caused what he describes as “unimaginable damage” to his client.
Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Tuesday, April 21, Prince Ganaku, lawyer for Frank Oliver Kpodo, stated, “At this point, we are considering legal action very, very seriously against the Fourth Estate”.
“When you go on social media, you see the reactions, the criticism, and the reputational harm. This is not just online, it follows him everywhere,” he said.
See the post below: