The Executive Director of Eduwatch Africa, Kofi Asare has called for a complete overhaul of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), advocating for its management to be fully transferred to district assemblies.
Highlighting the scale of the GSFP, Asare noted that its budget for 2024 stands at a staggering GHC 1.4 billion, making it the second-largest government-funded school initiative after the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy.
He stressed that “simply add one ghost name to each of the 10,000 beneficiary schools today, and that would be GHC 20,000 a day effortless profit from theft.”
Enrollment padding, according to Asare, is the most prevalent form of fraud in the GSFP.
Accordingly, he cited a case from the 2017/18 academic year where an anomaly was uncovered in the Sekyere East district.
“Ntunkumso Presbyterian Primary, with an enrolment of 385, was split into three with the enrolment figure repeated thrice in the payment file.”
This manipulation, as revealed by a National Security and Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) report, led to unwarranted financial gains for corrupt individuals within the system.
Despite the glaring evidence of fraud, Asare lamented the lack of accountability.
“Enrollment padding is the commonest fraud in the GSFP, and perhaps the only reason why it is still centralized, yet, no one ever goes to jail.”
He criticized the excessive secrecy surrounding GSFP data, revealing that Eduwatch’s requests for beneficiary data between 2020 and 2023 were ignored.
He criticized the erstwhile NPP government for intentionally centralizing school feeding data in Accra, arguing that this strategy makes it difficult for local authorities to verify the accuracy of beneficiary numbers.
According to him, this lack of transparency allows for manipulation and possible fraud within the system.
He alleged that the reported number of beneficiaries is often inflated, with far more students recorded on paper than those actually receiving meals in schools.
He further claimed that the true beneficiaries of the scheme are not the students in rural communities but rather individuals in affluent areas like East Legon, who manipulate figures for personal gain under the guise of serving village schools.
Furthermore, Kofi Asare suggested a bold reform—dissolving the GSFP Secretariat, proposing that school feeding funds be integrated into the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and allocated based on the poverty index.
Additionally, he recommended that local governments supplement these funds by committing a portion of their Internally Generated Funds (IGF).
His argument is that decentralization would introduce greater accountability, ensuring that funds are properly allocated and monitored at the local level rather than being managed remotely from Accra.
He further advocated for a complete depoliticization of the program to eliminate political interference, stating that this is “how every successful School Feeding Programme has been sustained globally.”
Asare insisted that the current structure of GSFP is unsustainable due to its corruption-laden framework.
He believes that only through decentralization can the program be restructured for transparency and efficiency. “That’s how you re-set a corrupt system, not maintaining the ‘sweet’ status quo.”
Kofi Asare’s comments come in response to revelations by former Dome-Kwabenya MP, Adwoa Safo, who claimed she was once offered a lucrative opportunity to benefit from the GSFP’s alleged fraudulent practices.
“She was offered a deal by the GSFP where just one ghost name could be added to a number of schools, and boom $$$$. And Adwoa refused?– Good woman!”
With growing public scrutiny on government expenditure, the push for reforms within the GSFP is gaining momentum. Whether authorities will act on these recommendations remains to be seen, but the call for change is loud and clear.