Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, says the deals surrounding the National Cathedral project continue to be “hazy, sleazy and very corrupt.”
His comments follow the recent disclosure by the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Abena Osei Asare, that an amount of GH¢339 million has been released for the National Cathedral project.
According to her, the Ministry committed the amount to ensure that the project had the necessary funding.
She also said that audits conducted by institutions, including Deloitte Ghana, indicated there had been value for money.
Reacting to this on JoyFM’s Newsnight, Mr Ablakwa said there was no proper accountability for the project.
He said that there has not been significant progress and the project has since stalled despite the huge amount of money invested.
“The National Cathedral project continues to be very hazy, sleazy and totally corrupt. A project with massive diversions and lack of accountability in a very grave manner,” he said.
He explained that during the proceedings, the Minister of State could not provide a positive response to whether the project had gone through the required procurement process before the GH¢339 million was released to support the project.
Additionally, Mr Ablakwa stated that the minister’s claims of value for money were unfounded.
He alleged that her statements contradicted the former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s claim that there was no allocation in the budget to support the National Cathedral project and that the funds were taken from the contingency vault.
In view of this, he asked “So, why are they shifting the goalpost? Why are they presenting us with different stories.”
In November 2022, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta denied taking money from the Consolidated Fund to finance the National Cathedral project.
According to him, the said claims are false.
This was in response to the Minority’s allegation that the Finance Minister released GH₵25 million to the National Cathedral Secretariat as additional seed money for the project without Parliament’s approval.
Mr Ofori-Atta said this on Friday when he appeared before the 8-member Ad-hoc Committee probing the Minority’s motion of censure against him.
The Finance Minister stressed that he did not breach any laws concerning payments for the project.
“I have taken no money from the Contingency Fund to make payments for the National Cathedral,” he clarified.
He explained that there is a difference between the Contingency Fund and the Contingency Vault, adding that the proponents of the censure motion against him might have confused the two terms.
“The Contingency Fund the proponents referred to is what is covered under the Constitution, specifically, under Article 177. This constitutes money voted by Parliament and advances from this must be authorised by the Parliamentary Finance Committee.
“The Contingency Vault on the other hand is a line under the other government obligation vault, which is approved by the Finance Committee and passed as part of the annual Appropriation Act passed by Parliament,” he explained.
He added that monies that have been disbursed for use for the project were from the Contingency Vault.