Executive director of the National Cathedral Project, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, has revealed that there is no criminality being perpetrated in the ongoing cathedral project being undertaken by government.
According to him, accountability and fundraising for the national cathedral has been transparent so far, with report on the financing of it being readily available.
“So, the idea that somehow, a project of this nature we’ll not want to be accountable, I cannot fathom it. This audit notwithstanding, I want to say categorically that there is no criminality in this project. We have implemented the project with integrity, including accounting for all the money from the state to the national cathedral project.
“There is no criminality in national cathedral project, we have implemented this project with integrity and accounted for every penny that we’ve been given by the state and donors.”
Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah
Updating the media on the status of the project today, November 1, 2023, Dr Opoku-Mensah revealed that at the moment, there are two ongoing audits of the national cathedral project that seeks to look into issues of accountability. With this, he stated that the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is conducting an investigation into issues of conflict of interest and procurement.
Additionally, he stated that a financial audit is equally being conducted by Deloitte.
“So, the notion somehow that we are running away from accountability is simply false. Since January, CHRAJ has been involved in detailed investigations and we’ve been cooperating. The last information I saw from CHRAJ was a questionnaire to the contractors about how they came to be selected…
“So, everything is being detailed – there’s detailed and extensive information from Deloitte… We say we are committed to ensuring that the process takes the time it needs so that we’ll restore the confidence in this project. “
Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah
Accountability of funds used for cathedral project
Furthermore, Dr Opoku-Mensah explained that the accounting for the cathedral project has been submitted to parliament. He noted that although the documents are sometimes “misused”, his team has submitted everything to parliament.
“So, there’s no missing figure or amount that we’ve not been able to account for. The detailed accounts for these funds were provided to parliament on December 15, 2022, by the secretariat. In the case of the accounting from the secretariat, this involved the amount that is total payments made to the contractor, Ribadi, which is the cedi equivalent of GHC2.5 million advance payment with a letter of intent and GHC12.5 million, advance payment made with a letter of award.
“Secondly, what the detailed account includes is total payments made to the Bible Museum and biblical garden design team which amounts to GHC4.2 million.”
Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah
In the case of monies paid consultants, Dr Opoku-Mensah stressed that this includes a list of all the companies in the consultants’ team. To this end, he insisted that the secretariat has not awarded the contract to an architect, as it’s being perpetrated in the media space.
“We don’t actually have a contract for an architect, we have contract for a consultant and design team made up of about 12 to 15 companies, majority of whom are Ghanaian companies…”
Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah
It will be recalled that the Founder and General Overseer of the United Denominations of Action Chapel Churches Worldwide, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams and President of the Eastwood Anaba Ministries, Rev. Eastwood Anaba, on October 17, 2023, resigned from the Board of Trustees overseeing the construction of the National Cathedral in Ghana.
The National Cathedral, a project initiated to serve as a national place of worship and a symbol of unity and pride for Ghanaians, has been a subject of debate and controversy since its inception.
In a statement signed by both Archbishop Duncan-Williams and Reverend Anaba, they explained that the decision to resign was due to the failure of the government to appoint an independent accounting firm to audit all public funds contributed to the National Cathedral.
READ ALSO: CPP Calls For Impartial Inquiry Into Flood Disaster
