The Minority in Parliament has described as a misplaced priority of the release of GHS 25 million to the National Cathedral Project as a seed.
Speaking on behalf of the Minority, North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, indicated that Parliament has not approved of the payment of these monies.
“This letter is exposing the lack of sincerity, the duplicity and the deception. This letter is confirming today that, contrary to the claims by the President, the National Cathedral Project apparently is being heavily funded by tax payer resources.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Mr. Ablakwa noted that Members of Parliament have not approved all of these colossal sums of money to companies that they are seeing for the first time. He averred that the Minority is not even aware of the procurement processes that was followed for “these companies and these consultants who are today at the receiving ends of hundreds of millions of Ghana Cedis”.
Okudzeto Ablakwa added that the government must focus on the many challenges confronting Ghanaians than on the building of the national cathedral. He stated that the other concern the Minority has is that, government is not prioritizing certain things looking at the current economic crisis that the nation finds itself, with the President himself admitting that the nation is facing an economic crisis of our lifetime.
“As we speak, NABCo trainees have not been paid for more than 7 months, national service personnel are owed, school feeding caterers are agitating; they are on strike and they have not been paid, National Health Insurance is owed, the last time we looked at the arears, government owes the NHIS GHS2 Billion.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Okudzeto noted that GetFund is in arrears and the district assembly common funds is in arrears as well. According to him, till now the money has not been released.
Adjaye & Associates Ltd paid GHS32 million
According to Okudzeto Ablakwa, documents from the Office of the President has confirmed that in 2021 alone, President Akufo-Addo authorized an astonishing GHS32 million of taxpayer funds to be paid to Sir David Adjaye & Associates Ltd for consultancy services on the National Cathedral project. He disclosed that all these were carried out on the blind side of Parliament.
Also commenting on the release of the GHS25 million, Former Municipal Chief Executive for Ejisu-Juaben in the Ashanti region, Afrifa Yamoah-Ponkoh, averred that the current economic hardship in the country should be the priority of the government, instead of releasing money for a national cathedral.
Mr. Yamoah-Ponkoh intimated that God would not need a Cathedral when almost every sector of the Ghanaian economy is faced with financial challenges. He described the Akufo-Addo administration as confused, hence the quest to build the Cathedral.
“This is deceit to loot the public purse. Akufo Addo is highly confused and using Ghana for his personal gains.”
Afrifa Yamoah-Ponkoh
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