Koforidua, Feb. 27, GNA - Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister, has warned District Assembly Desk Officers of the School Feedin= g Programme to avoid inflating numbers of beneficiary children. He said they should desist from such acts because even if human bei= ngs did not see them, they should always remember that God who has great pass= ion for children would not forgive them.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo was speaking at the formal opening of a day's works= hop on the Ghana School Feeding Programme Baseline data collection for the de= sk officers from District Assemblies in Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra Regions at Koforidua last Friday.

He called on officials working on the Programme to use the project to promote local business by purchasing food items from local farmers. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo urged the Programme managers to patronize local fre= sh fruits like oranges, pawpaw and pineapples for the children in order to h= elp to reduce the periodic fruit glut in some areas as well as improve the nutritional quality of the feeding. He repeated his suggestion that the Programme should be used to introduce children in cocoa growing areas to the consumption of cocoa products like chocolate drink and chocolate.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo advised also the Programme officials to work closel= y with the district and regional health directorates so as to know areas wh= ere there were mal-nutritional problems. The National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Alh= aji Abdul Rahman, identified corruption, structural defects and lack of quali= ty data as some of challenges that confront the Scheme. He said his office had taken series of measures to turn around the trend and build a good image for the project and promise to run a sociall= y accountable project for the people of Ghana.

Alhaji Rahman explained that the workshop was to gather data for th= e evaluation of the scheme and promised that his secretariat would run a project devoid of any politics. He said Ghana's School Feeding Programme is the only one in Africa,=

which explained why the international community was interested in the project and added that Ghana should not fail. Alhaji Rahman said this year, government had budgeted GH¢50 milli= on for the project as against GH¢39 million spent last year. He gave the assurance that with more donor inflows the scheme could=

bring more schools on board. 27, Feb. 10