Gov’t releases GH¢150m to pay School Feeding caterers

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection has released some GH¢150 million to defray the government’s debt owed to caterers of the School Feeding Program.

The Ministry in a statement said the amount is to pay part of the debt while efforts are made to pay the rest.

The GH¢ 150 million is to defray “The remaining 6 days of the first term 2018/2019 academic year, Outstanding payments for some caterers for 51 and 14 days first term of 2018/2019 academic year and 48 days of the second term of 2018/2019 academic year,” the Ministry noted.

It said the disbursement commenced on Wednesday July 24, 2019 and will continue throughout the week and as such caterers must follow up from their service providers to confirm receipt of their monies.

“We are mobilizing resources to pay the rest of the outstanding arrears (the remaining 15 days of the second term and the whole of the third term) of the 2018/2019 academic. This in effect brings a closure to payment of all outstanding arrears for the first term of 2018/2019 academic year,” the ministry further noted.

Some school feeding caterers in the country have been complaining about the delay in the payment of their monies.

There are some who say the government owes them for services they rendered during the transitional period in 2016/2017 academic year.

Some of them have also had the cause of report at the ministry to demand payment of their monies.

But the Ministry is calling on the “caterers to exercise restraint” as all issues with outstanding payments are paid.

“We wish to assure all stakeholders of Government’s commitment to sustain the program and improve upon its service delivery,” it stressed.