National Cathedral; Adjaye must return GHS 32M – Ablakwa

North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudze Ablakwa has said some people will be prosecuted over the National Cathedral project when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wins political power to form the next government.

Mr Ablakwa revealed that an amount of ¢32million has been released to Sir David Adjaye & Associates Limited in 2021 without approval by Parliament.

“MPs have not approved all of these colossal sums of money that are being released to companies we are seeing for the first time.

“We are not even aware of the procurement processes that were followed for these companies and these consultants, who are today receiving hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis,” Mr. Ablakwa said at a press conference on Thursday, June 2.

Despite these concerns that have been raised, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta justified the project while speaking on GTV Sunday June 12, indicating that the National Cathedral will pay off after its completion.

In his view, the project is not costing the nation as much as has been reported in a section of the Ghanaian media.

“At any point in time when these buildings were built in Europe, was it ever the right time? How do we fund it will become the question. Is the executive mindful of the current situation? We shouldn’t snuff out our religiousness or spirituality because we are poor. The Lord will understand if we put our widows mite in there,” he told Ghana Television (GTV) on Sunday.

“That question being asked is that are we spending money from state coffers? Is that too much to do because we are politicizing it. Do we really want to stop it? That is going to be my question,” he added.

But reacting to the statements by the Finance Minister also on GTV Monday June 13, Mr Ablakwa said “Hundreds of Ghana Cedis have been spent. Yesterday, [The Finance Minister] talked about only 25million cedis, he said nothing about the 32million cedis given to David Adjaye.”

Asked whether David Adjaye should return the money, he said “he has to return the fund, if he doesn’t return it now he will return when the NDC comes to power and people will be for all of these atrocities.”

Source: 3news.com|Ghana