Public Relation Officer of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Siba Alfa, has revealed that his outfit currently has an outstanding payment to make to caterers for the third term of the 2021 academic year.
According to him, government is expediting processes needed to ensure the payment of monies owed these caterers. Mr Alfa explained that once payments are made, the expansion of the programme will continue to other schools as well.
“Currently, we owe the caterers for the third term of 2021 academic year. We have to process their arrears and government is working on it. Apart from the third term arrears that we owe the caterers, there are also some isolated payment issues. Whenever we do payments, one or two caterers may not get their monies… All the caterers, we pay them electronically on their ezwich cards and when we ask for the information from them, sometimes, some of the information comes with inaccuracies… But the major one that we owe the caterers is the third term of the 2021 academic year which the minister has indicated government is working seriously to mobilize the funds and pay the caterers the arrears”.
Siba Alfa
His comments followed the Caretaker Minister of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cecilia Dapaah’s statement that the expansion of the programme is on hold to clear all arrears of caterers.
Government halts expansion of school feeding programme
Mrs Cecilia Dapaah, speaking on the floor of parliament on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, emphasized that the ministry is putting in place measures to ensure efficient and effective service delivery to all the schools as well as the caterers. Additionally, she indicated that Management Information System to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the system is being put in place.
Commenting on the timeline to exact payments to caterers, Mr Alfa noted that he cannot speak to the exact time of payment except the information given by Mrs Dapaah. He further clarified that contrary to some publications churned out by some media outlets; the school feeding programme isn’t on hold but rather its expansion has been halted in the interim. This, he iterated, is in a bid to pay off current debt to caterers handling the meals for the children.
Prior to this, the national coordinator for the programme, Mrs Gertrude Quashigah, had earlier denied claims that the programme has been put on hold. She revealed that the programme will continue to run in all 10,000 public basic schools in the country.
“Our enrolment of 3, 448, 065 still holds across the country… It’s the expansion which is on hold”.
Gertrude Quashigah
The Minister’s announcement was in a response to a question from the Member of Parliament for Yilo Krobo, Albert Tetteh Nyarkotey, on when the programme would be extended to some schools within his constituency. In December last year, the Minister reassured that the remaining arrears owed to caterers of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) would soon be settled. She noted that all the necessary data and figures had been worked on and submitted to the Controller and Accountant General for the release of funds to pay the caterers.
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