Government Blew ¢54.3m On Cooked Food During 21-Day Lockdown – Finance Minister Tells Parliament

The Finance Minister has revealed that government spent ¢54.3 million on cooked meals distributed during the 21-day lockdown in parts of Accra and Kumasi.

According to the finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta, a sum of ¢50.2 million was also transferred to over 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme.

The minister who was before parliament to give a breakdown of his mid-year budget review, said the Gender Ministry provided 1,827,581 packed hot meals while the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) gave out 917,142 packs to the old and less privileged persons in the affected areas.

Giving a review of government expenditure in that regard, the Finance Minister said, “Mr Speaker, the support to households, in terms of supply of dry food packs and hot cooked meals cost Government ¢54.3 million to enable them to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.”

It will be recalled that in April this year, NADMO revealed that government was spending GH¢2 million a day on the hot meals being provided for affected persons in the lockdown areas, a revelation that sparked a lot of outrage at the time.

However, NADMO gave a breakdown at the time, saying the budget was GH¢5 per meal which was to be multiplied by the total number of meals (400,000).

Source: GhanaFeed.Com