Spokesperson of the National Food Suppliers Association, Kwaku Amedume says the National Food Buffer Stock Company is yet to respond to their demands as no official of the company has spoken with them since they besieged the company on Tuesday.
“Nobody has ever spoken to us since we came here and that has been the case since the last two years. They don’t regard us, they don’t respect us. We have been chasing them,” he stated.
Mr Amedume made this known in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on Wednesday.
Members of the National Food Suppliers Association on Tuesday spent the night at the premises of the National Food Buffer Stock Company to demand monies owed them.
The Association said the picketing was due to the government’s failure to settle the over two year’s arrears owed its members.
An initial threat to picket on June 13 was suspended after assurances from the Buffer Stock company.
However, after a two-week ultimatum, the suppliers said they were yet to receive their money from the government.
“Anytime we come visiting, we received excuses upon excuses. There are times we come, the Buffer Stock CEO will tell us that we should all drive together with him to the Ministry of Education to go and ask why our money has not been settled till date. We will get there, and we will not find the Buffer Stock CEO, he will vanish into thin air,” Mr Amedume added.
Reiterating that the Buffer Stock Company was now dealing with new people, he described the situation as unfair and uncalled-for as they were also in dire need of their money.
“And now that money has come they have gone to pick different people, and they are working with those people. This is not tenable at all, this is totally unfair,” he noted.
He stated that they will spend the night again at the premises of the company and added that the “personal interests, cronyism and the insensitivity of those managing the institutions are the reasons we are in this mess today. We are not leaving here today, this is where we are going to be until our monies are paid.”