Guidelines on School Feeding Programme launched

Page 47
22-09-08

THE Audit Service has developed guidelines for the administration of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
Under the guidelines, district auditors are required to conduct monthly audit inspection of the accounting and store records of the district implementation committees (DICs) of the programme.
The auditors are also mandated to visit beneficiary schools to examine the accounting records of the school implementation committees (SICs) and the quality of food served to the children.
Speaking at the launch of the guidelines in Accra yesterday, the Auditor-General, Mr Edward Dua Agyeman, said district auditors were enjoined to submit quarterly reports on their auditing to their regional auditors, who would compile the regional reports and forward them to the Audit Service.
He indicated that the guidelines would, among other things, provide a single source of information for both officials and auditors of the programme.
He said three months after the end of each year, the accounting records and financial statements of the GSFP should be prepared by the National Secretariat and submitted through the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment to the Auditor-General for certification.
Mr Dua Agyeman said the Auditor General might, as a result of operational exigencies, contract an accounting firm to conduct the audit of the GSFP, adding that “district finance officers are required to maintain separate and adequate accounting records in respect of the GSFP’s feeding grants and the cost of bulk purchases made from them”.
According to him, caterers were tasked to maintain separate and adequate accounting records in respect of the GSFP which would enable inspectors to identify the amount of feeding grants released to them, the dates of the releases, the number of children who were served with meals on each school day of the releases and the quantity of foodstuffs and equipment received from the DICs and the national secretariat.
Mr Dua Agyeman said the monitoring and evaluation officials were to inspect the quality of food and water served to the children, ascertain the actual number of schoolchildren in a school during the previous term, investigate any discrepancies which might be detected, as well as monitor the receipt of kitchen items and foodstuffs from the national secretariat, among other things.
Launching the guidelines, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I.C. Quaye, said there was the need for all to commend the government for coming up with that laudable programme.
He said a lot of children were going to school as result of the programme, saying that it was “impossible for such children to absorb on empty stomachs”.
The government, he said, would continue to introduce more of such programmes.
A Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, said the GSFP was an initiative of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar (3) of NEPAD, which sought to enhance food security, reduce hunger and improve enrolment among schoolchildren.
“The programme is part of Ghana’s efforts at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on extreme hunger and poverty, as well as achieve universal access to primary education by 2015,” he said.
The National Co-ordinator of the GSFP, Mr Michael Nsowah, said by 2010, the programme would have injected $147 million into the local economy, adding that a significant aspect of the GSFP was the emphasis on locally grown foodstuffs, with a target to procure at least 80 per cent of food from local sources.
The Deputy Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Frank Agyekum, assured Ghanaians that the government would continue with the programme.
In an address read on his behalf, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, pledged the support of the service to the programme.