North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed pain over the membership of some men of God on the National Cathedral Board of Trustees, following the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice’s (CHRAJ) findings on a petition about the project.
Mr Ablakwa, who initiated the petition for the investigation, called CHRAJ’s findings “damning and explosive,” accusing the government of deliberate deception.
Mr Ablakwa said he was “pained” that influential pastors were involved in the project.
“I am pain. I feel sorry for the men of God caught in this scandal. I will never wish such a situation for men of God. It’s so unfortunate,” he remarked.
In an interview on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem, Mr. Ablakwa stated that the project was carried out “on the blind side of Parliament and the public,” despite the President’s repeated assurances that no public funds would be used.
He, therefore, blamed President Akufo-Addo for failing to be transparent about the funding and the project’s details.
“This could have been avoided if the President had listened to the cries of the people and followed due process. But he didn’t, and now look at where we are,” he stated.
CHRAJ’s report confirmed that the National Cathedral, which was originally meant to be privately funded, was actually financed with taxpayer money without proper parliamentary oversight.
But in the lawmaker’s view, the President made a personal pledge, but he didn’t come clean on the project.
“You recall the President said they were not using public funds. This was a private project. CHRAJ has confirmed what we discovered: that, apparently, on the blind side of Parliament and the public, contrary to the assurances we had been given, this project was a public project massively funded by taxpayer money,” he said.
CHRAJ also recommended that the Auditor-General conduct a forensic audit to assess the usage of funds and a value-for-money audit to determine whether the $58 million spent on the project reflects the current state of construction.
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