The Member of Parliament (MP) for Akatsi North, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, who is the minority spokesperson on education, has told the House that over 300,000 maggot-infested bags of rice have been distributed to Senior High Schools across the country.
According to the MP, the rice imported from India had been locked up in a warehouse since 2021, due to failure on the part of the importers to pay the required duty, but has found its way to schools across the country.
Taking his turn to debate the 2024 budget statement on Thursday, November 23, 2023 the Akatsi North MP called on the House to carefully look into what schoolchildren are fed with.
“Mr. Speaker, as we speak now, there is some rice in the system that has been supplied to Senior High Schools. They call it Lamens, from India. This rice, Mr. Speaker, is maggot-infested,” he alleged.
The MP continued that, “when it was imported in 2021, the suppliers or the importers did not pay for the duty on the rice, so it had to be stored in a warehouse. Now they have nicodemusly gone to remove this rice and have distribute them to the Senior High Schools, about 5,000 metric tonnes, which is over 300,000 bags of rice.”
He added that “the rice is about to expire. A few weeks to expire, they have now distributed them to the Senior High Schools in the country and that is what they are feeding our children with.
“Mr. Speaker, this is so serious that we must look at it carefully. Our children, if we don’t take care, when they come back home, they are going to suffer diarrhea and other forms of diseases.”
The MP was expressing concerns about the education system, including the School Feeding programme and what he described as the unhealthy meals being served the school children.
The MP also alleged that lands belonging to some schools have been sold.
He mentioned Ebenezer Secondary School and West Africa Secondary School, including that of UNESCO.
DIGITAL
The MP for Ahafo Ano South, Francis Manu-Adarboh, debating for the majority side, started by assuring the minority that it was easy to verify the status of the UNESCO land to ascertain the owners.
He argued that the land system in Ghana had been the same for a long time, thus the need to go digital. He said that it was necessary to prepare maps with digital coordinates, which would help the government identify every landed property to raise revenue.
The Chairman on the Lands Committee, Francis Manu-Adarboh referred to page 118 of the 2024 budget, where, through digitalization revenue from landed properties have increased, to support his argument that land administration should be fully digital.
He mentioned a system in Sweden, which he said is able to give even the number of doors in a house, and called for the same in Ghana.
“So, what are we waiting for? We have to go digital. We don’t have any choice,” he said and advocated for a private developer to partner with the Lands Commission if the government cannot fund it, to produce maps to serve the whole country.
He believed that such data would help every institution have a basis for their analysis and individuals would be able to inquire about a land or property to know the real details, including owners, by just having the digital code of the property.
He called on the Speaker and the House to support the Lands Commission on this move to look for a partner to undertake this exercise and be funded with the internally generated funds of the Lands Commission.
