School feeding management dialogues with aggrieved caterers over delayed payment

An 11-member delegation has been sent by the private caterers from the Central Region who prepared the hot meal for private JHS 2 pupils, to dialogue with the Management of Ghana School Feeding Programme over the delayed payment of their arrears.

The delegation, led by Mr. Francis Nketsia from Cape Coast and one Madam Obaa Yaa from Assin Central, was received by the Director of Operations, Mrs. Doris Gaba, Principal Accountant, Mr. Gilbert Kenneth Mag-Mawuli and Public Relations Officer, Mr. Siiba Alfa.

The caterers were at the Secretariat to inquire about when their outstanding payment would be released.

The School Feeding officials assured them that a payment file had been brought by the Central Regional M&E Director and had been validated by the internal auditors.

An official cover letter will then be attached to the file to request for payment by the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The Caterers who were satisfied with the information received from the Secretariat prayed the Gender Minister would expedite action on their payment.

The leadership of the delegation also made time to call on the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Dr. Gertrude Quashigah, who had by then returned from a meeting outside the Secretariat.

She appealed to them to exercise a bit more restraint as processes leading to their payment continued.

Brief background

There have been series of agitations in the Central Region after payment was suspended to pave way for the validation of caterers who cooked to ensure that money is paid to the right people.

However, caterers who cooked hot meals for both the public and private schools in all the remaining 15 regions have received their payment. In the Central Region, all the public JHS 2 caterers who cooked the hot meal have been paid except those in the private schools.

The hot meal was a stop gap measure by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during COVID-19 to reduce the burden on parents in feeding their wards at the JHS 2 and 3.