{"id":1195857,"date":"2022-08-31T18:18:56","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T18:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/31\/government-spent-%c2%a2142-million-on-national-cathedral-project-in-2021\/"},"modified":"2022-08-31T18:18:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T18:18:56","slug":"government-spent-%c2%a2142-million-on-national-cathedral-project-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/31\/government-spent-%c2%a2142-million-on-national-cathedral-project-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-text\" style=\"line-height: 2; letter-spacing: -0.5px;font-size: 18px;\">\n<p>                        <!--p class=\"ky_saved_articles_link\"><span class=\"ky_saved_articles_hide\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" class=\"ky_saved_articles_img\" alt=\"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021\" title=\"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021\"><\/span> Bookmark<\/p-->\n<p>The amount spent so far on the construction of the National Cathedral has been a subject of controversy.<\/p>\n<p>Work on the project, which is estimated to cost $340 million, is already said to have been suspended due to inadequate funds as workers have halted activities on the site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the contractors and their staff on site, but the work has been suspended. We are hoping that within the next couple of weeks, as part of our fundraising and other initiatives, we can begin work again,\u201d Executive Director of the Cathedral, Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah stated on Tuesday, August 30.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/1655829187_940_National-Cathedral1.jpeg\" alt=\"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021\" class=\"wp-image-10032112945\" width=\"643\" height=\"427\"   title=\"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>In the wake of this, it has come to light that GH\u00a2142,762,500 was spent on the edifice as of December 2021.<\/p>\n<p>This information is contained in the section of the Auditor-General\u2019s report with regard to the Controller and Accountant-General\u2019s financial statements of government operations ended 31st December 2021.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-myjoyonline-com wp-block-embed-myjoyonline-com\"\/>\n<p>The document was prepared in pursuance of Section 81 (1) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) and Regulation 217 of Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 L.I. 2378.<\/p>\n<p>The National Cathedral was captured under the government\u2019s priority programmes and interventions for the said year.<\/p>\n<p>In all, initiatives under that category cost a total of GH\u00a29,197 million during the 2021 financial year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"696\" height=\"823\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1661969936_626_image-204.png\" alt=\"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021\" class=\"wp-image-10032162725\"   title=\"Government spent \u00a2142 million on National Cathedral project in 2021\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Another big-ticket spending in that year was on Covid-19 Activity &#038; Vaccine which cost GH\u00a21,557,846,913.38.<\/p>\n<p>Another GH\u00a21,409,997,719.41 was spent on Free SHS Programme-SHS\/TVET, according to the report published on the Audit Service\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1334092210&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true&#038;visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>National Cathedral Controversies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The populace started questioning the project\u2019s source of financing when the North Tongue MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, put out documents showing that an amount of GH\u00a2200 million has been dished out towards the construction of the project.<\/p>\n<p>These monies, he said, were paid without recourse to parliamentary processes or strict public procurement practices.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mr Ablakwa, the Akufo-Addo administration first proclaimed the project as a private and personal pledge; however, public funds are now siphoned to facilitate the task.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the inclusion of the National Cathedral\u2019s Executive Director on the roll of Presidential Staffers also flies in the face of the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you go through the list of Board of Trustees, this gentleman [Dr Paul Opoku Mensah] who has been enlisted here as the Executive Director of the Secretariat, a Secretariat presented as a private entity, has also been enlisted as a Presidential staffer and his position there is an overseer of the National Cathedral.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy is the Ghanaian taxpayer paying somebody who works for a private board of trustees?\u201d he quizzed.<\/p>\n<p>His revelations have since gotten many influential individuals and pressure groups questioning the transparency and accountability of government. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Genesis of National Cathedral<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The building of the Cathedral fulfills a pledge President Akufo-Addo revealed he made to God before winning the 2016 elections.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said the construction of the National Cathedral is estimated to cost over $100 million.<\/p>\n<p>It has since been amended to $340 million.<\/p>\n<p>The government has already demolished all structures on the proposed site to construct the National Cathedral at Ridge in Accra.<\/p>\n<p>It is also scheduled to be commissioned on March 6, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>                <!-- Post Tags --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The amount spent so far on the construction of the National Cathedral has been a subject of controversy. Work on the project, which is estimated to cost $340 million, is already said to have been suspended due to inadequate funds as workers have halted activities on the site. \u201cWe have the contractors and their staff [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1195859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[8458,1090,290,1093,954,166],"class_list":["post-1195857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-cathedral","tag-government","tag-million","tag-national","tag-project","tag-spent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1195857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1195857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1195857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1195857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}