In a statement issued in Accra Tuesday, the sector minister, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, apologised to the caterers for the delay in the payment of their arrears.

The minister’s assurance came following the picketing by the caterers at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection last Monday to demand the payment of their arrears.

Ms Djaba said the delay was partly caused by the need for the ministry to adhere to the strict governance process for the arrears to be paid. “This new government has demonstrated its commitment to dealing with this issue by allocating funds for the 2016 arrears.

The Ministry of Finance is working diligently to clear the arrears,” she said.

Ms Djaba indicated that the current school feeding contracts would end in July 2017, adding that all the arrears would be paid before then.

According to her, the government inherited arrears of GH¢114 million, covering 75 cooking days, from the previous administration. 

She said in spite of the competing demands for public funds, the Ministry of Finance

had processed the release of the arrears for 2016 and 2017.

Background

Caterers of the GSFP picketed at the gender ministry to demand the payment of their arrears of about GH¢200 million.

The caterers, numbering about 30, represented about 5,370 members of the School Feeding Caterers Association who are yet to receive their payments after prefinancing 140 days of cooking for pupils in some public schools.

Expressing their grievances, the caterers said the arrears covered the third term of 2016 and the first term of 2017. 

They said they had met with the sector minister days before to discuss the payment of arrears and she had promised that the government would pay the money, but as of yesterday,

they had not received their money.

“The debt is not only for 2017; it starts from 2016 and that is why we are here. When you talk to the leadership, the response you get is ‘come today’, ‘come tomorrow’. So looking at the time and the indebtedness, we decided to come here today and see how we can get our money,” they said.

The Public Relations Officer of the School Feeding Caterers Association, Ms Yaa Duodua, said although there had been a publication in the newspapers that the government had released

money for the payment of school feeding arrears, the caterers were yet to receive any payment for their services.

Administrative issues 

The Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Kwesi Armo Himbson, assured the caterers of the government’s commitment to pay the arrears.

He explained to the caterers the reason behind the delay in the payment stating that it was due to the change in government and some administrative issues. 

“There is a change in government, and the budget,which is normally read in November, was read in March this year. But without the appropriation you cannot spend government money, so

that has caused the delay in the payment of the money. But all along the government has shown commitment that the money owed you will be paid,” he added.

The Coordinator of the GSFP, Mr Patrick Acheampong,said: We have made a lot of effort to get the money paid.

However, because of the change in government, we had to go through some processes because governance and control are key, especially when it comes to the payment of money.”