The government’s commitment of GHc80 million for the National Cathedral project in its 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy has been rejected by members of the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) party on the Joint Committee of Trade and Sports in Parliament.
Minority claims that the state is currently in too deep of a financial hole to even consider trying to raise money for a national project whose development has been veiled in half facts, outright lies, and utter untruths.
The Minority said that although being told at the Committee that a staggering GHc339 million had already been invested in the Cathedral project, no documentation of how these funds had been used could be given.
When Hon. Yussif Sulemana, MP for Bole Bamboi and the Deputy Ranking Member of the Committee for Trade, Industry, and Tourism, addressed the media in Parliament on Tuesday, December 20, he said the Committee had been informed that the Ministry of Tourism had taken over responsibility for the Cathedral.
However, he claimed that when asked under which secretariat the cathedral operated prior to its abrupt transfer to the Ministry of Tourism, government authorities were unable to respond.
He continued, “This means that we, the Minority, will not accept it since they merely want to utilize the Ministry as a conduit to deliver money to wherever they desire to spend it.”
We have a very clear policy. We have expressed that we are not opposed to the budget for the Ministry of Tourism even if we have voted against it. We will go ahead and approve the estimates, but we won’t include the GHc80 million because we weren’t happy with their response.
Hon. Sulemana reassured Ghanaians who were worried about the budgetary allocation to the National Cathedral project that the Minority had voted against it in the Committee and emphasized that the side would not take any action that would not be in the interests of Ghanaians when it comes to plenary.
He continued, “We are ready to make sure that whatever money is spent in this nation is spent in the interest of the people.
In a related incident, on December 21 at the National Cathedral construction site, a coalition of pressure groups and civil society organizations (CSOs) plans to picket.
In partnership with CSOs, pressure groups Justice for Ghana and Arise Ghana are urging Parliament to reject the GHc80 million that has been set aside for the project in the 2023 budget.
The protesters are picketing to ask the government to stop funding the national cathedral project entirely, according to the group.
They said that the project site’s fence need to be removed as well so that Ghanaians can see how public funds are being misused.
On Tuesday, December 20, members of the coalition opposed to the cathedral’s construction addressed the media in Parliament. They claimed that given the unwelcome “haircuts” being given to the Ghanaian people, the amount of money already invested in the project needed to be accounted for and recovered.
Prince Derek Adjei, the group’s spokesperson, emphasized that any funds used for the Cathedral project, whether they were paid to consultants in Ghana or the United States, must be reported.
He stated that “the GHc113 million out of the GHc339 given to the project’s architect David Adjaye must be recouped.”
The coalition, he claimed, is confident that the GHc80 million set up for the project in the 2023 Budget will not be met, but he emphasized that they are requesting more than simply a suspension of the project.
He continued, “We want a final score of 0-1; that is, 0 for the cathedral and 1 for Ghanaians.