This follows an announcement by government to disburse some funds for the payment of seven out of the over 120 days owed the caterers under the programme.

[contextly_sidebar id=”SVkQ1tT0ueqylo88XgDDZemaP3GG2H74″]The group has given government a one-week ultimatum to pay all arrears or risk a series of protests in all eleven district capitals across the region.

According to Citi News’ Upper West Regional Correspondent, Latif Mahama, the demonstration is to compel government to “pay all arrears due them, and to register their displeasure on the mode of payments adopted by the managers of the School Feeding Programme.”

At a press conference in Wa, the Upper West Regional Secretary of the School Feeding Programme, Hajia Munira Issah, said majority of their members are having problems with their suppliers and banks due to delays from government.

“We are pleading with the government and the Minister as a matter of urgency to come to our aid. We are giving government two weeks, otherwise we will hit the streets to demonstrate over our money,” said Mr. Isssah.

Meanwhile, Coordinator of the School Feeding Programme, Adu Nsiah, has assured the caterers his outfit is working with the Ministry of Finance to clear the debt.

“On Tuesday, we saw the caterers at the Ministry and their complaint was that they want the total amount to be paid to them. They do not want anything less than the total amount, but we know that in total, the government has been able to pay 151, 736,000. We have also written to Finance Ministry to give us GHC 180 million which will be able to pay everything…”

Former school feeding caterers besiege Gender Ministry over unpaid arrears

Hundreds of former caterers under the Ghana School Feeding Programme, angrily stormed the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection on Tuesday morning, to demand monies owed them for the first and second terms of the 2016/2017 academic year.

Clad in red, the caterers, who call themselves the ‘Concerned Old Caterers of Ghana’, carried placards with various inscriptions demanding immediate payment, such as “We need our money now”, “Pay us our money now!”, “Pay us in full” and “We need our money now!”

Speaking to citifmonline.com after the protest, Dela Agbenu, one of the angry caterers, expressed frustration at the amount supposedly paid each of them for the first seven days of the first term of the 2016/2017 academic year.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Clad in red, the caterers, who call themselves the ‘Concerned Old Caterers of Ghana’, carried placards with various inscriptions demanding immediate payment, such as “We need our money now”, “Pay us our money now!”, “Pay us in full” and “We need our money now!”

Speaking to citifmonline.com after the protest, Dela Agbenu, one of the angry caterers, expressed frustration at the amount supposedly paid each of them for the first seven days of the first term of the 2016/2017 academic year.

“We have a constitution that rules Ghana, and the Labour laws say that if somebody is working with you and you don’t need the person’s service again, you pay the person off before laying him or her off. You have laid us off without paying us. … We came here to see the minister to tell her that we need our money.”

“Later on, we had to send one delegate to the office. They came back and then asked for four, so four of us went in there. The administrator spoke to us that, they are preparing to pay us and so we should exercise patience,” she said.

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By: Akosua Ofewaa Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Shockingly, the police and the Regional Security Council have done very little to restore sanity in order for pupils who rely on the programme to continue to benefit from it.

Members of the Burma Camp Youth at Aboabo in the Tamale Metropolis, locked up the Secretariat on October 17, 2017.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Bs0yPJFpmDU1ejBu0CIT7M7xZUG4cNoN”]Spokesperson of the Burma Camp Youth group, Mohammed Kamil,  earlier in a Citi News interview, vowed that the Secretariat will be under lock and key until the mode of selection of the Caterers and Zonal Coordinators is reversed.

Staff of the Ghana School Feeding programme including the Regional Coordinator, Felicia Tetteh, have since not returned to work.

The group members have accused the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Miss Otiko Afisah Djaba, of hijacking the programme in the region, hence their action.

The group has thus petitioned the Northern Regional Chairman of the governing NPP, Daniel Bugri Naabu, and the party’s regional Council of Elders over the matter.

The group in that petition asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to call Otiko Djaba to order.

Over the weekend, they threatened to lock up district offices of the Ghana School Feeding Programme beginning Monday October 23, 2017, if the problem is not solved.

They warned caterers who have been allocated schools in the Tamale Metropolis not to cook or else they will be severely dealt with, but the Caterers ignored the threat.

The Zonal Coordinator for Tamale, Sagnarigu and Tolon , Suraya Abdul Manan, told Citi News that all Caterers under her supervision were at work.

She said no amount of intimidation or threats will compel the caterers to stop cooking. Suraya Abdul Manan encouraged the caterers to ignore any threats and continue to cook for the pupils.

Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Police Command appears not to be bothered about the Burma Camp Youth group’s action.

The police Public Relations Officer, Mohammed Yussif Tanko, on Eyewitness News claimed the matter had not been officially brought to the notice of the police administration.

His comment drew public condemnations from listeners who sent messages to the news programme via various social media networks.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Some of the caterers operating in those deplorable structures have had to battle with snakes and other reptiles that find their way into the makeshift kitchens.

Some parents have raised concerns about the state of the kitchens, which has forced some of them to withdraw their wards from the schools.

This was confirmed when Citi News visited some basic schools in the New Juaben Municipality to assess the state of the kitchens, which poses a threat to the life and health of beneficiaries of the school feeding programme.

The first school Citi News visited was the Oyoko Roman Catholic School at Oyoko, near the Oyoko Catholic Church. The kitchen for the school feeding programme is sited right on the school’s compound; in between the primary school and the JHS blocks.

A stagnant drain lies right behind the kitchen, serving as a breeding ground for flies and other insects. The wooden structure which serves as kitchen for some 300 pupils, floods and becomes inaccessible during the rainy season.

As if this isn’t enough, some teachers revealed to Citi News how the caterers engage some of the pupils in the kitchen, sending them on errands even during contact hours.

“We see the kids carrying water and other items going about and when you ask them where they  are heading to, they say the caterers have sent them so we informed our headmaster who then told the caterers to put a stop to that”

Citi News then visited the Nana Oware Agyapong MA at Nyamekrom, also in the New Juaben Municipality where the caterers cook from a dilapidated wooden structure, with holes in the roofing sheets.

The assembly member of Nyamekrom Peter Otukunor, explained how several attempts made to the Municipal Assembly to fix the problem have proved futile.

“Last year (2017), we managed to get the Municipal Chief Executive to come and inspect this structure, he promised to work on it for us but nothing was done about it, and the new MCE has also been here to see for herself the condition on the ground, and still the situation is the same. I will continue to push till I get a positive response from them.”

This situation according to the headmaster of the school, Okyere Boateng Samuel, has affected enrollment as parents who are more concerned about the health and safety of their wards have withdrawn them from the school.

“The problem we have here is with our kitchen, it is in a bad state and because of that parents have withdrawn their wards to other schools just because they are not comfortable with the kitchen structure where food will be prepared and served to their kids.”

Startled by these worrying revelations, Citi News went ahead to find out the situation from other schools in the Municipality .

Others schools visited, namely Nyamekrom,  Mpayem LA, Asokore Methodist, Apempoa Islamic school, and AME Zion had similar challenges.

It is believed that many more schools across the entire Eastern Region, particularly in the rural areas, may be facing the same challenge.

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By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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A statement from the Secretariat said: “We acknowledge that challenges such as delay in caterer payments and quality of food have affected the smooth implementation of the programme’’

It expressed concern about the suspension of school feeding in Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipal Assembly in Ashanti Region and Cocao Town in the Western Region and urged all to remain calm.

“We urge all involved to stay calm and allow caterers to cook for the children.  The Ministry is in touch with relevant authorities for amicable solution of the problems.

“Government in the meantime is in discussions to expand the programme to cover many more schools in deprived communities in the nearest future. Let us all join hands and allow peace to prevail for the programme to achieve its main goal of poverty alleviation,” the statement said.

The statement said the Ghana School Feeding Programme and its partners are marking the second edition of the Africa Day for School Feeding today, on the theme: “Home Grown School Feeding: Investment in Youth and Children for Harnessing the Demographic Dividend.”

The Day was instituted by African heads of state during the AU Summit held in January 2016, in recognition of the tremendous impact of home-grown school feeding on improving enrolment, retention and performance of children in school, as well as in boosting incomes and livelihoods of local communities.

The School Feeding programme is the world’s most widespread safety-net programme with more than 370 million children assisted through interventions in 131 countries.

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Source: GNA

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The court, presided over by Justice George K. Koomson, dismissed Republic Bank’s application, holding that the action was properly brought before the court by HFC Bank and should therefore be heard.

Background

The HFC Bank, on 23rd May 2014, sued the Republic Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for what it alleged were breaches of the SEC Code on Takeovers & Mergers in Republic Bank’s attempt to do a mandatory takeover of HFC Bank by purchasing of HFC shares held by the Union Bank of Nigeria. HFC Bank also applied for an interim injunction against Republic Bank and the SEC.

Republic Bank countered this by filing an application to strike out the court action altogether, arguing that: 1) HFC Bank should have submitted a complaint to the SEC to investigate the alleged wrongdoing by Republic Bank before filing the action in court; 2) the action was not authorised by the Board of Directors of HFC; 3) the fact that HFC Bank accuses Republic Bank of engaging in “insider trading”, which is a criminal offence, means that the action can only be prosecuted by the Attorney-General as a criminal case and not as a civil case, and 4) the action is vexatious and an abuse of the court’s process. The SEC supported Republic Bank’s application.

However, the court dismissed the application on all the four grounds. On the first ground, the Court held that HFC Bank was justified in not first submitting a complaint to the SEC, because the SEC’s actions in the transaction raise questions of bias and impartiality. HFC Bank therefore had legitimate fears that it had a very slim, if not impossible chance of getting a fair hearing before the SEC. The court stated that it would be preposterous for it to throw out HFC Bank’s action, and that it would amount to a travesty of justice. On the second ground, the court held that HFC Bank was not wrong to allege in a civil suit, that Republic Bank had committed “insider trading”.

On the third ground, the court held that the Minutes of the Meeting of HFC Board on 28th April 2014 and a letter of the same day, written by HFC Bank’s Managing Director to the Bank’s lawyers, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah, confirmed that the action was authorised. On the last ground, the court stated that the court action initiated by HFC Bank raises serious issues that have to be determined by the Court and therefore the action is neither vexatious nor an abuse of the court process.

The court awarded costs of GH¢1,000.00 against Republic Bank and in favour of HFC Bank. HFC Bank is represented in this matter by Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah, and the Republic Bank is represented by Reindorf Chambers.

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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In an ex-parte motion filed at the Commercial Division of the High Court, the shareholders are asking the Courts to intervene to save HFC, described by the shareholders as a profitable Ghanaian Bank, from being taken over by foreigners.

The shareholders, Mr. Kwasi Asante and Mr. Alfred Bortey, of Accra and Tema respectively, contend that there is already too much foreign interest in the financial services sector in Ghana and are worried that nobody seems to care to support the indigenous Ghanaian industry.

Already, the High Court in Accra will on June 23, rule to determine whether or not an action brought to Court by the HFC Bank against the Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago and the Security and Exchange Commission for an interlocutory injunction to halt the process of a takeover of the HFC Bank should be struck out.  Lawyers for the Bank from South America want the action dismissed so Republic Bank can take over the Ghanaian Bank.

HFC Bank has an impressive growth history, recording significant profits in the past. It is also the leading bank in the mortgages area and many Ghanaians, both home and abroad, have owned their homes through facilities provided by HFC. Many more Ghanaians are still looking to secure their own homes through HFC and it is feared that a hostile takeover of the Bank could undermine the expectations of Ghanaians in the mortgages services sector.

According to the plaintiffs, a number of reputable foreign Banks have operated in the country over many decades and have contributed their best towards national development. The question most people ask however is about how far Ghanaians want foreign participation in the country’s banking industry to go.

“Majority of Banks, 14 out of the 26 Banks operational in Ghana, are foreign owned.  Sixty percent of banking assets are in the hands of the 14 foreign banks.  The largest Bank in Ghana, Ecobank, is foreign owned.  Out of the top five banks (by assets) only GCB appears as a distant second.  This situation does not exist in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya and many others. Why can’t we build our own institutions?  Why play second fiddle in our own country?,” the plaintiffs contended.

“We can bet that Republic Bank has come to Ghana with the enthusiastic support of their country’s Central Bank and their other State institutions. The question is – which of our institutions are supporting HFC at this time?,” they demanded.

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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