EduWatch demands payment plan for arrears owed Free SHS food suppliers

Education think tank, African Education Watch, is demanding what it calls further details on specific strategies being deployed by the Ministry of Finance to clear the over three hundred million debt owed food suppliers.

African Education Watch says Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta during the mid-year budget review, missed an opportunity to give fine details of interventions being put in place by his Ministry to resolve the poor disbursement of approved funds for feeding under the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme.

The Executive Director of African Education Watch, Kofi Asare indicated that strategies should be made known to stakeholders, to avert a widespread shortage of food in public second-cycle schools.

“The main cause of the food supply disruptions is the GH¢340 million owed the Buffer Stock and by extension owed the suppliers under the Free SHS program.”

“We thought that, the Minister of Finance had to explain why the Ministry is unable to disburse cash in accordance with cash flow projections by the Ministry of Education and more importantly what is being done to ensure that there is cash flow so that the academic calendar is not disrupted because of the lack of food.”

Kofi Asare also alleged that there are inconsistencies in the expenditure figures on the Free SHS put out by the Finance Ministry and the Education Ministry.

He called for clarification on the expenditure.

“We want the Minister of Finance to come and clarify what the actual expenditure on the Free SHS is from inception to 2021 because data credibility on the expenditure is very important for policy accountability.”

Posted by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh