According to Lariba Zuweira Abudu, the Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Protection, the contracts of school feeding caterers have lapsed.

The Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Walewale, disclosed this information during her appearance before Parliament on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in response to questions.

She informed the House that all 10,832 caterers' contracts had expired and that she plans to initiate a thorough and rigorous process for awarding new contracts.

Dr. Clement Apaak, the Member of Parliament for Builsa South, inquired about the number of caterers in the program and their recruitment process.

In her response, the Minister confirmed that all the caterers' contracts had indeed expired. She revealed that the selection of new caterers would be carried out through a competitive advertisement process.

The Minister further explained that advertisements for prospective caterers would be published in national newspapers, and only qualified caterers would be chosen following the selection process.

The new selection procedure will encompass eight distinct steps, as follows:

Competitive Advertisement: We will advertise soon. The Ministry and Ghana School Feeding Programme National Secretariat will advertise nationally specifying the selection criteria and mandatory requirements.

Applications will be submitted: Caterers will apply online and submit required documents including registration certificates, financial statements, health certificates, and permits.

Assessment of applications: The National Secretariat will evaluate the applications based on the criteria and compile a list of qualified applicants.

Interview for selected applicants: An interview panel will assess the shortlisted caterers individually, considering their advertised criteria and the highest-scoring caterers assigned to the schools.

Submission and approval: The interview panel will submit the evaluation report to the National Secretariat, and the final list of qualified caterers, will be sent to the Ministry of Gender for approval and contracting.

Contracting Phase: The National Secretariat prepares caterer documents, including details of the caterer, and assigns school, and signatures officials. The contracts are distributed to relevant applicants.

Assigning a caterer to a school: The National Secretariat Officials will use the MIS through the digitisation process to assign the schools while selecting the appropriate classes.

Authorising a caterer assigned to a school: The National Secretariat reviews and approves validated caterer records at the district, regional and national levels.

The Minister stressed that the process involves advertisement, application assessment, interview selection, contracting, and assigning caterers to the schools, with necessary approvals at each stage.