Dr. Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah, the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding program (GSFP) has apologized to all caterers for the postponement in the payment of their 1st term arrears and promised them that they will soon receive payment.
The GSFP assured that the government has approved coffers to be released for the payment of arrears for 1st term of the 2021 academic year to caterers.
According to her, the government is only owing to the caterers the 1st term of the 2021 academic year, of which processes are ongoing to effect payment as soon as possible.
However, there are a few isolated cases of caterers who did not receive their 2019/2020 arrears in full including some of the caterers of the JHS hot meal due to some challenges.
Hence the government has done very well to settle all arrears of caterers in the 1st and 2nd terms of the 2019/2020 academic year amounting to some 117 cooking days since the caterers did not cook in the third term of the 2019/2020 academic year due to Covid-19.
The National Secretariat of GSFP had already collated caterers’ data and processed it for payment as soon as the Controller and Accountant General’s Department transferred the same to the Bank of Ghana for onward transfer to the Ghana School Feeding accounts.
Meanwhile, a statement issued in Accra by the Public Relations Unit of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, on the other hand, has disproved the claim that the government is presently owing caterers of the program some eight months’ arrears.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Abba Kwegyirba Aggrey
