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Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has shared worries by School taking care of food providers over increasing expense of tasks and the prompt requirement for an expansion in awards.
There is developing unsettling for an increment from the current ¢0.97 per head to ¢3 following the significant expense of living to ensure the nature of food served and the food of the program however government is yet to address the test.
The Speaker’s anxiety follows an unexpected visit to the School Feeding Secretariat and the Buffer Stock Company on Thursday, following fights over deficiencies and dangers to suspend administrations by the caterers.
Alban Bagbin made sense of that the food providers’ interest is important with respect to the ongoing worldwide monetary difficulties.
“We see that there is a challenge and the challenge is financing. The caterers, as you say, do the pre-financing because of the global economic situation, which has affected Ghana.
“There is the need for an upward adjustment of the amount you give to them. Definitely, ¢0.97 is on the low side, and their demand is justified,” he stated.
The Speaker is, however, not sure if government would be able to meet the ¢3 daily demand by caterers.
The Speaker who paid tribute to the late Major Courage Quarshiga, whose wife currently heads the Secretariat, called on stakeholders, including NGOs, to assist government to sustain the initiative.
“I think it is a very critical initiative. It is a national policy supported nationally by all of us and passed through the various governments.
“We should all put our hands on deck and I will want to assure you that Parliament will do our bit…we will look at how we will support the school feeding secretariat to generate more revenue,” he added.
National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Gertrude Quashigah, assured that the concerns of the caterers are being dealt with.
“The MMDCEs in the Regions called on behalf of the caterers. We rely on government for payment, and so we have assured them, we will always continue to plead with them and to encourage them and then to calm them down and to console them,” she noted.
She disclosed that her outfit had also received some ¢50 million from Controller and Accountant General to be used for payment for the caterers.
At the National Buffer Stock Company, the Speaker assured that Parliament will ensure funds are available to the organisation to expand its capacity to stock large quantities of food for a rainy day.
“You can see that one of the biggest challenges is funding. It is just not sufficient to give seed money; I think that government will, from time to time, have to come in to provide them with some financial support
“This will keep the prices to the level we usually refer to as affordable and not allow this price escalation. So let us see how we could support this institution, and so I will brief the House,” Bagbin emphasized.
Source: Otixpres.com
