MoE Should Investigate Expired Supply Of Food Products To Free SHS Beneficiary Schools

It has come to the notice of the Friends of Free Senior High School (SHS), that some beneficiary schools of the free SHS policy are being supplied with expired food products, especially in the Brong Ahafo Region.

This was revealed when a team from the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) – the committee with oversight responsibility over the prudent management of oil revenues – and selected members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), with support from the German Development Corporation (GIZ), visited some SHSs in the region to assess the impact of the Free SHS (FSHS) programme which is partly being funded with oil revenue.

In a story published by the Daily Graphic last week, all the five schools visited in the Brong Ahafo Region complained about receiving supplies such as flour, palm oil, and milk that had either expired or were near the expiry date; hence, their inability to use them for the students.

Another common trend in all the five instances was that the schools had no idea the unit price of the supplies as the suppliers never disclosed that to them, except the quantity due them.

Some of the schools said some of their supplies such as maize were brought from as far as Accra, whereas products were abundant in the region.

With the above revelations by schools, the Friends of Free SHS is urging the Ministry of Education (MoE) to immediately constitute an investigative committee to investigate the claims by the headmasters.

We are also of the opinion that, the free SHS Secretariat decentralise supply of food to avoid the situation where a food items like maize will be sent all the way from Accra to the Brong Ahafo region, a known food basket of the country.

The free SHS has come to stay and we will urge the handlers of the policy to be transparent in their dealings to enable government achieve its aim of providing education for all.

Contacts
Yaw Bibinii
023 884 1082
Barima Kofi
0503711344
Ama Comfort
024 179 3990
Ransford Asanti
0244747516