More than GH¢2m overpaid to school feeding caterers between 2017-2022 – Report

A performance audit conducted by the Auditor-General on the management of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has uncovered that about GH¢2.3 million has been overpaid to caterers.

The Auditor-General carried out the audit from August to October 2022 at the GSFP National Secretariat in Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Upper East, and Western Regional offices.

The audit covered the period from 2017 to 2022.

It was also uncovered that the food served by the cooks was not adequate to sustain the pupils through the instructional period or school day.

The programme which was launched in 2005 currently feeds over 4 million pupils in over 12,000 public basic schools in 216 districts.

Wrongful payments were also made to caterers who were not under contract for the programme to the tune of GH¢274,235.29.

The national secretariat of the feeding programme also failed to retrieve an outstanding amount of GH¢831,776.00 realised from the sale of the Caterer Application Forms.

The Auditor-General therefore “recommended that the National Coordinator should put in place measures to identify and retrieve all the outstanding wrongful and overpayments made to caterers as well as the monies realised from the sale of the caterer application forms.