Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) boss, Gertrude Quashigah
In a rebuttal to the allegations levelled against the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) Management, Spokesperson for Dr. Gertrude Quashigah, has said the audits the secretariat has been subjected to have not indicted the management to justify their “incompetence.”
According to Mawuli Kobla Asamani, the allegations that the National Coordinator is not up to task and has misallocated funds to the tune of GH₵12 million to “Ghost Schools” were crafty means people who are envious of the Coordinator have employed to cause her removal from office.
“It is a deliberate attempt to disgrace her because they [the GSFP Secretariat] control funds. If you look at their annual allocation of budget, it’s around GH₵400 million.
“It is huge and so anybody will want to go for that appointment, and for that reason they will want to drag her through the mud’, said Mawuli Kobla on the Anopa Bↄfoↄ morning show with Kofi Adoma Nwanwani.
The spokesperson also argued that there are bureaucratic processes through which the secretariat goes through before money is disbursed to appropriate receivers. He mentioned the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection as one of the bottlenecks to the process.
“The ministry of Finance is part, Controller and Accountant General, the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) and Audit Services because everyone time payment has to be made, there has to be an audit of the database. All caterers who are on the scheme have to be audited before the payment is done”.
He therefore argued if the management were paying the “Ghost Schools” the GH₵12 million as alleged by the PRO of the Ghana National School Feeding Caterers Association, Caroline Aboagye, the audit would have uncovered it.
His response was however a reiteration of a statement issued by the PRO of the GSFP on October 2, 2021, which read in part, “We have a very transparent payment process that conforms to standard public financial procedures. Thus, the feeding aspect of the programme has a separate account, which is lodged at the Bank of Ghana in the name of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP).
“The National Secretariat of GSFP only facilitates payment by coordinating the process which involves the Ministry of Finance, Controller and Accountant General’s Department, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and finally, the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) which electronically transfers the feeding grants to caterers on their e-zwich cards”.