The 2018 Auditor-General’s Report has revealed several financial
irregularities that have led to huge financial losses to the state in
the running of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, with 81 metropolitan,
municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) and the management of the
programme blamed for the mismanagement.
Bloated enrolment figures, duplication of schools and payments of
grants to non-existent caterers in the 2017-2018 academic year, as well
as under-declaration of revenue from sale of application forms,
according to the report, account for the huge losses running into
millions of cedis.
The report accuses the 81 MMDAs of declaring only GH¢194,383.00 from an
amount of GH¢1.09 million purportedly realised from the sale of 21,880
application forms sold to caterers who applied for contracts. As much as
GH¢899,617 from the sale of application forms is unaccounted for and
has been outstanding since 2017.
These revelations are contained in the report already forwarded to
Parliament. The report also singles out the Sekyere East District for
particularly padding the enrolment of the figures and manipulation of
data.
A-G’s Report
The report also cited the management of the GSFP to have made unsubstantiated payment amounting to GH¢1.10 million.
“Our review of the cash book of the GSFP revealed that a payment of
GH¢1.10 million to a financial institution via cheque No 24292 dated
March 27, 2017, was not supported with any payment voucher and other
documents,” the report added.
It also revealed that five unsupported transactions amounting to GH¢1.37 million were made by the GSFP secretariat.
“In view of the management’s failure to substantiate the total payment
of GH¢1.36 million, we disallowed the expenditure and requested
management to refund same, failure of which they would be surcharged,”
the report directed.
Sekyere East’s culpability
In the Sekyere East District in the Ashanti Region, for instance,
documents available to the Daily Graphic showed that over GH¢141,000 had
been lost through padding of enrolment figures and other manipulations
of data.
Findings of preliminary investigations, conducted by state agencies
such as the National Security and the Economic and Organised Crime
Office (EOCO) in collaboration with the GSFP Secretariat, established
some infractions in seven schools in the Sekyere East District.
Portions of the report made available to the paper indicated that
Ntunkumso Presbyterian Primary, which was a single school with an
enrolment of 385 and one caterer as of the third term of 2017/18
academic year, had been split into three with the enrolment figure
repeated thrice in the payment file.
It was also discovered at the Ntunkumso Roman Catholic Primary that
although the school had 172 pupils for the period under review, the
caterer was paid for 380 pupils.
“The caterer confirmed that in the second term of 2017/18 academic
year, she received payment for 380 pupils instead of 172,” the report
indicated.
At the Senchi Methodist Primary School, it was found that the school,
which runs a single stream with a population of 442 and one caterer, was
duplicated in the payment file as two schools with two caterers.
The same illegality was discovered at Seniagya D/A Primary where the
single stream school had been captured in the payment file as two
schools and the enrolment figure inflated from 514 to 792.
“At Feyiase D/A Primary, the headmaster told the team that conducted
preliminary investigations that he was new and, therefore, would not be
able to furnish the team with third-term enrolment for the previous
year,” the report added.
The paper gathered that the state agencies were carrying out detailed investigations to bring the perpetrators to book.
Suspension
The Auditor General’s Report seems to confirm the extent to which the
state is losing money through financial irregularities at the GSFP and
already a management person has been suspended for it.
The former National Coordinator of the GSFP, Dr Kwame Adu-Nsiah, was
suspended over allegations of involvement in “fictitious deals” in the
payment of caterers of the programme.
Dr Adu-Nsiah was asked to step aside from his role on December 13, 2018
after a National Security investigation reportedly implicated him in
what was described as “fraudulent deals” in the running of the feeding
programme.
A letter addressed to the then coordinator and signed by the Minister
for Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), Ms Cynthia Morrison,
dated December 13, 2018, accused him of inflating figures of schools
under the programme.
The Daily Graphic has learnt that a three-member team was set up under
the chairmanship of the Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, to
investigate the matter but it is yet to make its findings public.
Dr Adu-Nsiah declined to comment on the issue but indicated that he was
still awaiting the verdict eight months after being asked to step
aside.
Payment file
Meanwhile, a source at the GSFP National Secretariat told the Daily
Graphic that the suspension of Dr Adu-Nsiah was not the solution to the
revenue leakages in the school feeding programme.
The source explained that a bureaucratic chain of officials at the GSFP
Secretariat and the Gender Ministry were involved in building a payment
file for caterers.
“The building of the payment file starts from the district level where
the data on caterers and enrolment is endorsed by the metropolitan,
municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), and forwarded through
the regional coordinators to the national secretariat.
“The National Coordinator and other officials collate the data and
forward it to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection,
where the minister, the internal auditor at the ministry, the chief
director and the chief accountant all scrutinise the data for errors.
“If they are satisfied with the data on enrolment and caterers, the
chief director will jointly sign a letter with the chief accountant and
send it to the Bank of Ghana to transfer money from the school feeding
programme account to the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System
(GhIPSS) from where the money is paid directly to the caterers.
“So if there is over-payment, I believe that it must involve a number of officials along the chain,” the source explained.
