The Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, has said that challenges with food supplies to Senior High Schools, are a result of corruption and fraud that have plagued the National Buffer Food Stock Company. According to Dr Clement Apaak, the running of the National Buffer Food Stock Company led by Hanan Abdul-Wahab, has become inefficient, thereby questioning its usefulness. Speaking at a press conference, Dr Clement Apaak, cited instances of under-invoicing, the distribution of expired and non-certified food items, as some of the fraudulent activities being carried out by the Company. “Some of the Buffer Food suppliers are simply corrupt and fraudulent. There are in-stances of under-invoicing; where quantities of supplies to the schools are drasti-cally reduced. Expired food items are supplied to schools.” “Sometimes, heads are compelled by orders from above to sign for quantities of foods they have not received. We sometimes have suppliers dumping items in ex-cess capacity to schools. There were even instances where schools were supplied with products that had not been certified by the Food and Drugs Authority”. Dr Apaak was worried that these acts are compounding the problems of the Free SHS Programme. “All of these things are captured in the Auditor General’s report, so clearly the Buffer Food Stock Company and the role it is playing is contributing to the challenges of the Free SHS policy.” —TheHerald—
