Ranking member on the education committee of parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, has called for a public enquiry into the arrears owed food suppliers in the country by the Buffer Stock Company.

According to him, the non-payment of two years arrears to food suppliers by Buffer Stock is becoming perennial. He revealed that authorities involved have over the years denied report on arrears anytime it’s mentioned. However, he stated that the current picketing by food suppliers has revealed the true nature of the situation.

Mr Nortsu-Kotoe indicated that the education committee does not have an oversight responsibility over Buffer Stock, but rather, the committee for agriculture, because it provides food for students in the secondary schools.

Nonetheless, he noted that since the education committee is under the ministry of education, it has shown interest because currently, some secondary schools are experiencing shortages of food items.

“… So, the situation is very bad, we cannot owe people and take their money and go and engage new persons and you don’t want to pay them… I don’t see why the Buffer Stock is not telling us the truth. That is why I am asking for a public enquiry into the activities of the Buffer Stock.”
Peter Nortsu-Kotoe

Mr Nortsu-Kotoe highlighted that per interaction with some of the suppliers picketing, their concerns were that Buffer Stock owes them for food that they supplied to the senior high schools. He indicated that these women went for credit facilities from banks and are to pay interests on them, and Buffer Stock, on the other hand, is refusing to pay them.

“Again, the women also complained to me that they have been sidelined and new persons have been engaged to supply food items to the various institutions. If you have done that, then pay them off. You can’t owe somebody and go and engage somebody and pay that person regularly. I have been saying over the years that Buffer Stock has become a house of corruption where the things that go on is very bad.”
Peter Nortsu-Kotoe

Due to the current predicament of the food suppliers, Mr Nortsu-Kotoe further iterated that government must investigate the activities of Buffer Stock, “because my information also is that the minister of education has paid about 90% of what they owe them”.

Resolving challenges with payment of arrears

Furthermore, the ranking member of parliament’s education committee explained that the committee has not been informed. Also, he indicated that there’s no petition or any information from the food suppliers to that effect.

“So, before the committee, there’s no complaint and there’s no petition. We only talk when the matter comes out and then we try to intervene and make sure that they are paid. So, that is what we are doing. It is only when we have a formal complaint that we can act because it is the students that are affected directly.”
Peter Nortsu-Kotoe

On his part, Spokesperson for the National Food Suppliers Association, Kwaku Amedume, revealed that indeed, Buffer Stock has admitted having received the GHC90 million payment. However, he underscored that Buffer Stock has also made a counterclaim that the ministry has some GHC175 million to pay up.

“The bottom line is that these are elderly women and in the entire 2022, they did supply to the Buffer Stock and not even a dime was paid to them. For the entire 2021, they were only paid 30% of what they supplied. In fact, in 2023, they were asked to also do an emergency supply to which they complied. Up to now, the minister has paid the 2021 suppliers up to date.”
Kwaku Amedume

Moreover, Mr Amedume expressed that the minister for education instead of paying the arrears of suppliers has resorted to engaging other persons. This, he explained, betrays the confidence of food suppliers in the ministry.

“Those people who are not part of our members that the minister himself went to contract and sidelined us to go and contract, those people have been paid. So, my question is why will the minister remove us from the data and be paying people who have just done supply.”
Kwaku Amedume