The Minority in Parliament is demanding that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta be dragged before the House to answer questions on how GH¢25 million was advanced to the National Cathedral Secretariat for the construction of the Cathedral.
The Minority says the National Cathedral project is not a government project and wonders how public funds will be used for it.
Speaking on the floor of the House, MP for Adaklu Governs Kwame Agboza said the Finance Minister has a lot of questions to answer.
“I will request that the very sensitive issue about government’s expenditure on the National Cathedral of which has been in public domain and payment made from the public coffers is discussed. I believe it will be in the interest of this country for the Finance Minister to brief the house on the circumstances leading to the spending of that expenditure because it is believed that those expenditures could be out of what the public procurement and the Public Financial Management Act requires.”
The Minority in Parliament filed three urgent questions to compel the Minister for Finance to provide details on how much the state has spent on the National Cathedral Project.
It followed the circulation of a letter indicating the release of an additional GH¢25 million from national coffers for the project as additional seed money.
Over the period, government has indicated that the national cathedral project is to be financed largely by donations from the Christian community.
But a Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah feels the Minority in Parliament is making “unnecessary noise” over the government’s ¢25 million contribution towards the National Cathedral project.
He said the ministry has nothing to hide insisting that it is ever-ready to render accounts on the National Cathedral project.
“If you file parliamentary questions, you wait in Parliament for the answers and not rush to the media as he [Ablakwa] has done. He also speaks about a scandal. What is scandalous about making legitimate payments? We are prepared to answer any questions they may have.”
“I don’t agree with him that the seed money which we have provided for and informed the nation about towards the contribution of the National Cathedral is scandalous. A scandal is what we witnessed when his government decided to pay Woyome millions of dollars when they didn’t even have a contract with government. We have set our priority, which is the building of a Cathedral for the nation, and it is going to be a national monument for the country,” he added.
However, the Deputy Finance Minister was unable to readily provide details on how much money has been raised so far for the project.
“I don’t have the figures now. But I want to assure Ghanaians that there is nothing illegitimate about this. When it is time for us to render accounts, we will do so.”