The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has held a crucial national workshop aimed at resolving persistent payment challenges and improving data integrity across its operations, as part of broader efforts to enhance service delivery.
The week-long workshop, which ended on Friday, April 17, brought together Regional Coordinators and their Secretaries from all the 16 regions to undertake a thorough operational review of the Programme while aligning and validating data across all regions and establishing a more reliable and transparent payment system.
National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Hajia Fati Forgor, addressing participants at the workshop, stressed on the need for urgent corrective measures to tackle the age-old inconsistencies in programme data among others.
She explained that the engagement is intended to “reset” the Programme by ensuring efficiency, accountability, and value for money for beneficiaries, caterers, and the government ahead of the Second Term 2025/2026 payments.
“There is therefore a critical need for a structured national engagement to review, correct, and align all school meal provision data before the Second Term 2025/26 caterer payment with the core objective of resetting the Ghana School feeding Programme (GSFP) for efficiency and value for money for the beneficiaries, caterers and the Government.”
Hajia Fati Forgor noted that central to the workshop is the implementation of a four-phase data validation framework to ensure accuracy and accountability in payments to caterers.
The first phase focuses on validation, led by the Monitoring and Evaluation, Operations, and Audit Directorates. This stage involves verifying enrolment figures, reviewing affected caterer records, confirming e-zwich number changes, and ensuring compliance with established guidelines.
Following validation, the second phase involves the formal submission of verified data through internal audit channels to the National Coordinator, ensuring traceability and standardization.
In the third phase, the National Coordinator reviews and approves the data before forwarding it to the Finance Directorate. This stage serves as a key control mechanism to prevent errors from progressing further, with provisions for corrections where necessary.
The final phase involves updating payment records by the Accounts Unit strictly based on approved data, a move expected to eliminate discrepancies and enhance the credibility of the payment process.
Key objectives of the workshop included identifying operational gaps that contributed to payment challenges, harmonizing data nationwide, strengthening coordination among Accounts, Operations, and Monitoring and Evaluation units, and improving the overall efficiency of the payment process.
The workshop further emphasized strict adherence to financial management procedures, including proper documentation and timely retirement of funds, to ensure compliance with public financial management regulations and avoid audit queries.
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Source:
opemsuo.com