The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Dr Cyril Fayose, has called on the government to be transparent concerning the funding of the national cathedral project.
According to him, it is only right for government to do so to put everyone’s mind at ease concerning the source of funding and whatnot.
He added that concerning the government partially funding the project, there’s nothing wrong with the act as previous governments have in the past funded several religious activities, however, it would be most beneficial if there was more transparency in the act.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said “well you know this is the baby of the government and the President; we should not lose sight on that very important part of this whole process.
“Even though the churches had willingly come on board, it’s still dear to the heart of the President and the government. So if things are not moving on well, they may support.”
He further added that “I don’t think there’s anything wrong if government supports a religious activity. And I know that in the past previous governments have supported religious activities severally.
“What is important is if government does so, it must come clean to put everything on the table and let the whole world know that this is what government is doing to help Christians or to help the nation in its quest for the divine.
“And we do that in several other ways so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that but they must first come clean.”
Dr Fayose said he was pleased with the Finance Minister coming out to speak on the national cathedral project and how much of government funds being injected into it.
“Let us be transparent about some of these things and there will be no problem,” he said.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta had revealed that the project which was initially designed to cost $100 million now will cost $350 million.
For the past one week, the North Tongu MP has accused government of siphoning public funds to facilitate a project it propagated as a personal and private pledge.
So far, the North Tongu MP has put out documents showing that an amount to the tune of GHC200 million has been dished out for the construction of the project.
These monies, he said, were dished out without recourse to parliamentary processes or strict public procurement practices.