The government has paid the arrears for the first term of the 2023/2024 academic year to caterers under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
In a statement dated July 1, 2024, the GSFP said the payment had been made through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to caterers across all 16 regions.
The statement said the term began on October 3, 2023, and included 58 official cooking days.
However, caterers were instructed to use the first four days, October 3 to October 6, to clean their kitchen environments, reducing the cooking days to 54.
They were paid at a rate of GH₵1.20 per child per school day.
GSFP also said its attention has been drawn to certain complaints from some caterers over alleged underpayment.
“The National Secretariat has therefore directed that all Caterers who genuinely have such issues of underpayment or no payment should immediately report to their Regional Coordinators for prompt redress.
“The issues would be thoroughly investigated to ascertain whether all the affected Caterers cooked throughout the term or they were rather affected by non-cooking days’ deductions,” the statement said.
According to the caterers, they sent several petitions to the School Feeding Programme secretariat but efforts to get their monies were unsuccessful.
They lamented the untold hardships the situation brought upon them, adding that several caterers had died while others were unwell as a result.
They, therefore, gave the government until June 28, 2024, to pay all outstanding arrears or face their fury.
The caterers also angrily suggested that the government should shut down the programme if it is unable to continue funding the meal services.
Below is the full statement
