Coordinator of School Feeding Programme Sacked
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has sacked the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Gertrude Quashigah.
A letter from the ministry directed Madam Quashigah to hand over any official document or property in her custody to the chief director of the ministry.
The letter dated May 18, offered no reason for terminating the contract of the National Coordinator.
However, it comes after the Ghana Police Service announced that it had begun investigations into alleged corruption in the implementation of the School Feeding Programme in some Senior High Schools.
Some 53 schools in the Ashanti Region were cited for allegedly exchanging food for cash.
The ministry, however, expressed its gratitude for Madam Quashigah’s support towards the execution of her mandate at the GSFP Secretariat during the period.
The outgoing coordinator was appointed on December 24, 2019, after taking over from Dr. Kwame Adu-Nsiah, who was also fired over allegations of corruption.
Dr Adu-Nsiah was suspended in December 2018 over allegations of corruption in the management of the school feeding programme.
Accusations against Dr Adu-Nsiah
The directive which the Gender Ministry said it received from National Security contained the following accusations:
- Inflation of enrolment figures of some schools under the GSFP compared to the figures of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for the 2017/2018 academic year.
- Catering contracts for some schools which do not exist but have been awarded to fictitious caterers who have been paid a total of GH₵141, 075 for the third term of 2017/2018 academic year
- Some names of caterers were identified to be involved in the ongoing malfeasance with non-existing schools assigned to them
However, a committee that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo set up to probe the issue exonerated him.
The committee chaired by the then Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo submitted a 13-page report of its findings in January 2020.
The report noted that after interviews with key personnel of the School Feeding Programme, “there was no tangible evidence to substantiate the allegations of widespread malpractices in the GSFP apart from the specific case of Sekyere East Constituency”.
Although, the committee indicated that it had established acts of duplication, wrongful payment, error of judgment and mismanagement of the programme in Sekyere East as reported by the secretariat, it said those acts had nothing to do with Dr. Adu-Nsiah.
About GSFP
The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) which started in 2005 is an initiative of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) Pillar 3 which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
The basic concept of the programme is to provide children in public primary schools with one hot nutritious meal, prepared from locally grown foodstuffs, on every school-going day.
The aim is to spend 80% of the feeding cost in the local economy.
Below is the letter from the Gender Ministry
