The National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Program, Dr. Kwame Adu-Nsiah, has assured that all former caterers under the programme who are owed arrears by the previous government will be settled soon.
Last week, the caterers held a press conference in the Ashanti Region to relay their concerns where they renewed appeals for a quick settlement of feeding grants owed them.
Speaking to Citi News, Dr. Adu-Nsiah asked the caterers to exercise restraint as his outfit works to bring them relief.“During the transition period, they handed over certain documents to us, but unfortunately, there was no financial provision for them[caterers]. During 2017, auditors were sent to our end for validation, after the auditing, the details were sent to the Minister of Finance for them to give the money so that we can pay the caterers. It is not the fault of current management of the school feeding,” he said.
Protests from caterers
The basic idea of the school feeding programme has been to provide pupils in primary public schools with one hot nutritious meal every day.
It has however been battling with some challenges as far as funding is concerned.
In May, scores of caterers under the school feeding programme besieged the premises of the Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection, demanding the payment of their arrears.
Some of the caterers said they had not been paid for more than eight months.
At the time, the National School Feeding Secretariat said it would pay the debt by the end of May.
The Ghana School Feeding Programme has been ongoing since 2005, under the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme Pillar III, in response to the first and second Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving the universal primary education.
Last year, the programme released GHc 21 million to cater for part of the debt it owes caterers.
The money was supposed to cover the first seven days of the first term of the 2016/2017 academic year.
–
By: Farida Yusif/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
The post Former school feeding caterers to be paid soon – Coordinator appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS