A performance audit conducted by the Auditor-General on the management of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has uncovered approximately GH¢2.3 million in overpayments to caterers.
The audit, carried out from August to October 2022, covered the period from 2017 to 2022 and included the GSFP National Secretariat in Accra and regional offices in Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Upper East, and Western regions.
The audit also revealed that the food served by the cooks was insufficient to sustain the pupils throughout the instructional period or school day.
Launched in 2005, the programme currently feeds over 4 million pupils in more than 12,000 public basic schools across 216 districts.
Additionally, the audit found wrongful payments of GH¢274,235.29 made to caterers who were not under contract with the programme.
The national secretariat of the feeding programme also failed to recover an outstanding amount of GH¢831,776.00 from the sale of Caterer Application Forms.
The Auditor-General recommended that the National Coordinator implement measures to identify and retrieve all outstanding wrongful and overpayments made to caterers, as well as the monies realized from the sale of the caterer application forms.
