Irregularities In School Feeding Programme Exposed!!!

By Aruna Momoh Kargbo

The management or the running of the School Feeding Programme which is meant for the feeding of primary school pipuls in government, government assisted and community schools was not free from irregularities or corruption.

This was captured by the protector of the country’s public purse, Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) in their recently published report, stating a number of these irregularities starting 2019-2021.

“Garri was supplied to the pupils even though it was not desired by them, and the school authorities were neither informed nor was any assessment done to gauge the pupils’ receptiveness to garri,” the report stated.

The report disclosed that Joint Aide Management supplied expired mana packs to schools in Tonkolili.
That food items were supplied six months after the reopening of schools (March 2020) instead of a month before the re-opening of school.

The report furthered that out of a total of 22 schools visited that benefitted from the School Feeding Programme, only 8 had storage facilities with just 3 in good condition.

The report also maintained that there were delays in the preparation and sharing of food by an average time of 45 minutes.

“Food was not prepared and shared in a hygienic manner. Food was placed on the floor during preparation and sharing,” the report stated.

That the School Feeding Secretariat did not have a system in place for the monitoring and evaluation of the School Feeding Programme and that about 80% of the head teachers did not have the capacity to implement the Programme.