All is set for the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), a pro-poor policy that has been instituted to help feed pupils in deprived areas of the country with a meal a day to go digital.
The move, which has been in the pipeline of the Secretariat for some time now, will see the light of day at a time when criticisms and allegation payment of ghost caterers has been rife.
The allegations were to the effect that the Secretariat had paid some 510 ghost schools an amount of GHC12M during the 2019/2020 academic year with those making the allegations calling on the government to overhaul the School Feeding Secretariat.
But, a government source has revealed to us that the ministry is conducting an audit into the activities of the Secretariat, indicating that preliminary findings suggest the allegations are baseless and untrue.
The source added that the GSFP outfit has already made efforts to track and suspend some School Feeding caterers who are cooking without letters of engagement, stressing that this is part of efforts being made to ensure sanity in their operations.
It is believed that it is the move to clear out these names that have triggered the recent attacks as well as the allegations that are targeted at the National Coordinator, Mrs Gertrude Quashigah.
“The GSFP operates within an approved budget and anytime some persons try to impose themselves on the programme and they are prevented, they turn round to accuse the National Coordinator instead,” the source disclosed.
With the efforts to digitize its data with technology to help track caterers almost about to start, the case of the state financing unapproved caterers’ activities will become a thing of the past.
Some 3,444,081 pupils currently benefit from school feeding across the country.
Monitoring has been zoned with at least 78 Zonal Coordinators assigned to the zones to monitor and give reports on the activities of caterers.
Feeding grant per child currently stands at GHc1, a figure that has been described by many as woefully inadequate, considering the prices of foodstuff and other consumables.