Member of Parliament for Bole Bamboi, Yusuf Sulemana, has called for the scrapping of the 30 per cent protocol list allocated for traditional rulers under the school feeding programme.

This comes at a time concerns have been raised by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the recruitment of supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) as caterers for the programme to the detriment of experienced ones.

According to Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Otiko Afisa Djaba, the 30 per cent protocol move is intended to factor traditional leaders as well as community stakeholders in the programme.

“Concerning the 30 per cent protocol, it is something that was put in, to ensure that traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the communities will be factored into the programme,” she said while answering questions on the floor of parliament on Wednesday, 22 November, 2017.

But in a sharp rebuttal, Mr Sulemana who filed the question on the floor of the house, said the protocol system is a cover up to award contracts to NPP women.

Speaking to parliamentary correspondent Ekow Annan, the lawmaker said: “For me, it is just a strategy to as it were, give the 30 per cent to NPP women organisers.

“Sometimes I don’t come to ask questions when there’s no need. I have interrogated a lot of those who benefit from this programme in my constituency, Bole Bamboi, and I can tell you we don’t have up to three chiefs, traditional rulers or stakeholders as she is describing as benefitting from this programme.

“What it means is that, it’s just a cover up. For me, it is just a strategy for as it were, give the 30 per cent to NPP women organisers. For me it is a very bad practice, they haven’t gone through interviews so where lies the transparency that we’re talking about. The NPP government I can tell you is beginning to suffer from credibility programme…so the 30 per cent protocol should be scrapped.”