School Feeding Programme is suffering from structural dislocation-

Co-ordinator

Accra, Nov. 23, GNA - The National Co-ordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (NSFP) Alhaji Suleman Abdul Rahman on Monday noted that his outfit is suffering from structural dislocation and mal administration. He said the administrative machinery lacked the mechanism to co-ordinate activities of the NSFP with the mother ministry (Ministry of Education) and the district offices.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra he said: "The number of kids on the programme has been bloated given rise to widespread corruption." Alhaji Rahman said procurement was done haphazardly leading to the purchasing of 600 gallons of soap, which were lying in the warehouse of t= he NSFP. He stressed: "450 bags of rice were left to go mouldy and the Food a= nd Drugs Board has directed that they should be destroyed. "The Secretariat owes 90,000 Ghana Cedis to people who supplied rice=

and plates to the programme four years ago.

"There is inadequate capacity building for staff whilst lack of effective monitoring and evaluation is hampering efforts of the programme= to get its priorities right.

"People were appointed without appointment letters and written job descriptions. There was also lack of involvement of the communities and t= he district assemblies in the selection of caterers." The national co-ordinator observed that the NSFP operated without qualified personnel in functional areas whilst capturing of data was not effective. Alhaji Rahman said he would re-organise the programme and ensure tha= t it covered the schools it was originally intended for. He said he would take some schools off the programme after critical evaluation.