The Auditor-General has announced that a total of GH¢57.2 million in unearned salaries has been recovered from public sector workers who remained on the government payroll despite being absent from their posts.
Reports suggest the recoveries, made between 2023 and April this year, were paid into a special recoveries account maintained with commercial banks and subsequently transferred to the Consolidated Fund.
A Graphic news story stated, “In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic, the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, said the latest figures demonstrated the government’s resolve to eliminate ghost names from the payroll system once and for all.
“Auditors will comply fully with validation checks and surcharge every person who is paid unearned salaries.
We are determined to completely do away with ghost names on the payroll,” the Auditor-General stated.
According to the official schedule from the Auditor-General’s Department, the period covering 2023 and 2024 saw GH¢29.5 million recovered from individuals who had either abandoned their posts or could not be validated. In 2025, recoveries totalled GH¢20.4 million following intensified audit exercises.
Then, between January and April 2026, an additional GH¢7.3 million has been recovered, bringing the cumulative amount since inception to GH¢57.2 million.
All the monies were initially paid into a special recoveries account.
The Auditor-General confirmed that after final reconciliations, each tranche was transferred to the Consolidated Fund in line with financial regulations”.
Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, also warned that managers of public institutions and supervisors who certified payrolls without verifying their staff presence would not be spared.
He stated, “Supervisors who see to these payments are also going to be held accountable. If you, as a supervisor, certify a payroll knowing that a named person is not at post, you will be surcharged personally”.
The Auditor-General further assured the public that validation exercises were now being conducted quarterly.
“Ghost names will become a thing of the past,” he declared.
In related news, the Auditor-General’s Office has revealed that they wrongfully attributed GH¢427,995,661.40 in unearned salaries to a single public servant, Frank Oliver Kpodo.
According to the Auditor-General’s Office in a press release dated April 21, 2026, the GH¢427,995,661.40 in unearned salaries relates to payroll irregularities involving 3,476 unaccounted staff under the Ministry of Education.
They further disclosed that unearned salaries attributed to the Ministry of Defence were GH¢427,920.01.
In a press release dated April 21, 2026, signed by Assistant Director of Audit Frederick Lokko clarified the earlier mistake, saying, “The Office of the Auditor-General has noted with grave concern a media publication citing Mr Frank Oliver Kpodo (a public servant) as having received an unearned salary of GHC427,995,661.40 per the Auditor-General’s report on the Nationwide Payroll Audit for the period 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2025, dated 20 November 2025.
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 respect of 3,476 unaccounted staff during the payroll audit.
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.
We further extend our apologies to the Government and people of Ghana, and the Controller and Accountant-General for the transpositional error noted above”.