Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has debunked assertions that, the National Cathedral is a property of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to him, statements to this effect makes him uncomfortable and needs to be clarified to the Ghanaian people.
A decision by government to construct a National Cathedral has been received with heavy resistance from a section of Ghanaians who have described the move as misplaced priority.
It has emerged that contrary to initial claims by officials of the project and government that the monument will be constructed at no cost to the state, government through the finance minister made available GH¢25 million to the National Cathedral Secretariat as additional seed money for the project.
It also came to light that an amount of over GH¢190 million has been spent on the edifice so far as alleged by the NDC member of parliament for Klottey Korle Constituencey.
The minority in parliament in a censure motion against the Finance Minister described the Asset as the ‘President’s Cathedral’ which has received money from the Consolidated Fund without parliamentary approval.
In his response before an Ad-hoc Committee of Parliament set up to investigate the allegations contained in the censure motion, Ken Ofori-Atta described the minority’s description of the project as the President’s Cathedral as unfortunate.
“I did not know where the President’s Cathedral was. I’m uncomfortable with the formulation of this grounds. It presupposes that parliament is assuming the jurisdiction to interpret the constitution,” he said.
He explained that the National Cathedral is a State-owned company limited by guarantee under the Ghana Museums Board.
He noted that the incorporation of the National Cathedral of Ghana, as a private company owned by the State, with the Museum and Monument’s Board as its sole corporate member, reflect and affirm the National Cathedral’s character as a National Monument, and hence a public project.
Source: theGhanaianvoice.com
