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.
Meanwhile, 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”.
It will be recalled that 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.
Reports by the Fourth Estate stated, “Three weeks ago, officials from the ministry appeared before the committee over a GHS4.8 million contract for six SUVs intended for border surveillance and election monitoring.
Although a Stores Receipt Advice (SRA) had been issued to confirm delivery, checks revealed the vehicles had never been supplied, raising concerns among members of the PAC over falsified documentation on the undelivered vehicles.
They called for Mr Kpodo to be interdicted from his current role at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources as the Director of Finance and Administration. They also recommended his prosecution.
In his Payroll Audit Report for 2025, the Auditor-General recommended that the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department should “immediately delete” Mr Kpodo’s name from the payroll, along with those of some 6,000 other individuals who received monies for no work done”.
The Auditor-General recommended, “Principal Spending Officers should discontinue the validation of these individuals and recover the total amount of GH¢801,808,427.04 as unearned salaries paid to them, failing which the Principal Spending Officers and the Validators should pay”.
However, the Fourth Estate has disclosed that Mr Frank Kpodo has labelled the audit findings as “worrying and surprising,” adding that he could not “imagine how that can happen”.
According to him, his salary was processed through the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department with pay slips that can be independently verified, insisting that he was unaware of any irregularities and could not explain how such payments could have occurred.