The 2022 Auditor-General’s (AG) report has revealed that GH¢831,776.00 generated from the sale of forms for selecting caterers for the Ghana School Feeding Programme in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic years remains unaccounted for.
According to the report, 21,880 application forms were sold at GH¢50 each, yielding GH¢1,094,000.00, but only GH¢262,224.00 was recovered.
Despite efforts by the national coordinator to recover the outstanding amount, GH¢831,776.00 remained unrecovered as of the audit period from 2017 to 2022.
The audit also highlighted that while reminders were sent to defaulting Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to settle their debts by August 31, 2022, only six out of 225 had responded by the time of the audit.
“We noted from the correspondence files that, within the audit period the National Secretariat through the MMDAs advertised nationwide in 2017 for prospective caterers to apply to provide catering services to beneficiary schools for the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic years as required.
“The MMDCEs sold a total of 21,880 application forms at GH¢50 each and realised a total amount of GH¢1,094,000.00 from the sale. However, the NS recovered GH¢262,224.00. The remaining amount of GH¢831,776.00 was still outstanding as at the time of the audit.
“The correspondences indicated that the National Coordinator, through the Sector Ministry, sought the assistance of the Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGD&RD), and the Head of the Local Government Services to retrieve the outstanding amount from the affected MMDCEs, and a reminder to the defaulting MMDCEs to pay the outstanding amount by 31 August 2022. However, as at the time of the audit, six of the 225 MMDCEs had responded.”