Nana Oye Lithur, a former minister for Gender and Social Protection, has said that the giveaway of 400,000 meals a day which amounts to GHC2 million is a clear waste of money.
She therefore urged that the Akufo-Addo led administration must as a matter of urgency replace the distribution of cooked foods with uncooked food.
“President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced during one of his statements that the government was going to provide 400,000 packs of cooked food and the NADMO coordinator said that [it] is costing GHC2million per day. I think that is a waste of money and that should be converted into dry food”.
Detailing why taxpayers' money is going down the drain, she stated that by observation, government has not put in place any mechanism that identifies the extremely poor, poor, bedridden and persons with disabilities in the society, therefore, the random sharing of cooked food defies the purpose for which the money was given out.
She further added that bedridden people, persons with disabilities and the poor in society tend to be left out when officials are sharing these lockdown relief items because they are not properly targeted.
According to her, for the above-mentioned people to equally have their share of the national cake, government must collaborate with traditional leaders, district assembly members and unit committee members who are the best to determine who is extremely poor, bedridden, widow, single mother among others for food items to be duly distributed to those who really need them.
Speaking on Good Evening Ghana Tuesday, the politician pointed out that the health status of personnel distributing the cooked food to the public are unknown, adding, “the whole idea of cooked food is very wrong. People have different dietary [needs], some people may have certain illnesses…so giving them dry food…proteins, carbohydrates would be better and there’s even dignity with that”.
She advised that the government goes “back to the drawing board and plan how they can distribute the food in a COVID-19 compliance way where they can actually observe the social distancing,… ensure they are able to target the extremely poor, poor, persons with disabilities, bedridden and elderly persons”.
Her comments come on the backdrop of videos circulating on social media where people keep breaking the social distancing directive of President Akufo-Addo in a bid to fight for a pack of cooked food to feed themselves.
Source: ghanaweb
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What did you do at your time. Give Ghana a break.
One thing that we should all learn is to pay attention to details. I have seen uncooked food being distributed in homes as well as cooked food for those who live on the street. Those who live on the street mostly depend on cooked food. Now most cooked food vendors are also observing self quarantine under lockdown, that is why cooked food is also being served alongside distribution of uncooked food. The problem is that some people are selfish. They have already benefitted from the uncooked food items, and also go for the cooked ones. Ghanaians are also not observing the social/physical distance protocol. That is where I expect former gender minister to add her voice to help in the education of the Covid 19 pandemic and not to condem the efforts of the current Gender minister. Madam Oye, how did you share the funeral grant from Gambia to the few families of the victims? We all know what happened. Keep quiet if you don't have anything to say because silence is golden.
You are a spent force. No body values what you say. The are not important. Very ***barred word*** lime you and your husband
I totally agree with her.... we are just wasting the tax payer's money. What is happening now is that even artisans who are doing their jobs in their homes as soon as they hear the food has arrived inform their colleagues that 'aban aba oh and ho and collect their share. There are others who also collect the food and sell it for a fee. If the government cannot review the process and only distribute to only the official lifeline persons. Let stop this wastage all in the name of scoring political points. It is so obvious.
We as a people are too explotative, trying to steal from the State at every opportunity. We were all happy when they government declared her intention to supply food to the vulnerable. You spent almost a quarter of the amount to cook the food. Can't these people cook food themselves? Is it that we are not smart or sheer greed? Sense is remote from us all