Political interference affecting delivery of school feeding programme – SEND Ghana report
A latest assessment of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) by SEND Ghana has uncovered that political interference in the contracting of caterers is affecting its delivery.
The Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP) began in 2005 with a basic concept of providing children in public primary schools and kindergartens in the poorest areas with one hot, nutritious meal per day, using locally-grown foodstuffs.
The immediate objectives of the programme are to reduce hunger and malnutrition; increase school enrolment, attendance and retention; and boost domestic food production.
The programme which has the contracting of qualified caterers as an important aspect to ensure its success has seemingly over the years faced numerous challenges.
This according to a report from SEND Ghana is due to the political hands that play roles in giving contracts to caterers not particularly looking at their qualification but political affiliation.
Speaking at a stakeholder dialogue on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, Project Officer at SEND Ghana, Mrs. Sandra Kwabea Sarkwah said the findings of the study by her outfit points to inconsistencies in procurement processes in the recruitment of caterers who are major implementers of the program.
She said through the assessment of procurement of caterers, her outfit learned of gaps in the procurement that needs to be urgently addressed to put the programme in the best position to serve its purpose.
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In addition to the contract issues, SEND Ghana also identified the delayed payment of caterers as another major challenge facing the programme.
“One of the major challenges every caterer talked about is the delay of payment. Whether belonging to party A or party B their major problem is they are quite late. That is also a cause of poor service delivery,” Mrs. Sandra Kwabea Sarkwah told Modernghana News on the sidelines of the stakeholder dialogue.
The SEND Ghana Project Officer added, “We have done a lot of monitoring around the school feeding Programme and we think that it will be very great for the school feeding secretariat and also the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to make sure that the policy guidelines that govern the recruitment and contracting of caterers are actually complied by all.”
SEND Ghana also wants the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to ensure the timely release of funds to contracted caterers in line with the school calendar to ensure better service delivery to school children.