The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam George, has rubbished the need for a National Cathedral and said Ghana needs its leaders to take more proactive measures.
Speaking on the Sunrise Show on 3Fm Wednesday, December 28th 2022, George said the government has its priorities backwards and that they need to protect pension funds from the debt exchange programs rather than wasting money on a Cathedral.
“When the Church wants to build a Cathedral, we will build it.” Mr George said.
He added “What we are building is a multi-purpose building and not a National Cathedral. What this country needs today is the protection of our pension funds and not a National Cathedral.”
His comments come after the government of Ghana announced a debt exchange program to restructure its domestic debt as part of measures to achieve debt sustainability to acquire an IMF loan.
Initially, pension funds were included in instruments to be affected by the exchange, but were later taken out due to endless agitation by organised labour.
Organised Labour including, the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG), and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) had all rejected the government’s attempt to include the pension funds in the debt exchange programme.
According to Organised Labour, it was against the law for the government to touch pension funds.
Meanwhile, the government went ahead to budget Ghc 80m for the National Cathedral despite the ongoing economic challenges.
The figure was later reappropriated to the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation after minority members of Parliament stopped its approval for the Cathedral at the committee level.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com