Over GH¢800,000 out of GH¢1million from sale of school feeding application forms missing – Report

The 2022 Auditor-General’s report has uncovered that an amount of GH¢831,776.00 realised from the sale of forms for the selection of caterers for the Ghana School Feeding Programme for the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic years has not been accounted for.

The report uncovered that 21,880 application forms were sold at GH¢50 each, which brought in GH¢1,094,000.00 but only GH¢262,224.00 was recovered.

A performance audit report conducted by the Auditor-General for the period 2017 to 2022 on the management of the programme revealed that the national coordinator attempted to retrieve the remaining GH¢831,776.00 but was unsuccessful.

“We noted from the correspondence files that, within the audit period the National Secretariat through the MMDAs advertised nationwide in 2017 for prospective caterers to apply to provide catering services to beneficiary schools for the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic years as required.

“The MMDCEs sold a total of 21,880 application forms at GH¢50 each and realised a total amount of GH¢1,094,000.00 from the sale. However, the NS recovered GH¢262,224.00. The remaining amount of GH¢831,776.00 was still outstanding as at the time of the audit.

“The correspondences indicated that the National Coordinator, through the Sector Ministry, sought the assistance of the Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGD&RD), and the Head of the Local Government Services to retrieve the outstanding amount from the affected MMDCEs, and a reminder to the defaulting MMDCEs to pay the outstanding amount by 31 August 2022. However, as at the time of the audit, six of the 225 MMDCEs had responded.”

-citinewsroom