GH¢142 million of public funds spent on National Cathedral in 2021 – A-G’s report

A total of GH¢142,762,500 from the national coffers was spent on the Ghana National Cathedral project in 2021.

This came to light as part of government spending contained in the 2021 Auditor-General’s report submitted to the Speaker of Parliament.

The particular expenditure was captured under the government’s priority programmes and interventions for the year under review.

The total expenditure for initiatives under priority programmes and interventions was GH¢9,197 million during the 2021 financial year.

Aside from the GH¢142 million on the Cathedral project, spending on COVID-19 Activity & Vaccine cost GH¢1,557,846,913.38. while GH¢1,409,997,719.41 was spent on Free SHS Programme-SHS/TVET, according to the report published on the Audit Service’s website.

According to the Service, the report was prepared under Section 11 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584) for presentation to Parliament in accordance with Section 20 of the Act.

The project has been dogged by controversies in recent months, from the use of public funds in its construction to alleged Parliamentary and corporate breaches.

The National Cathedral Secretariat recently confirmed that the project has stalled since early this year citing a lack of funds.

North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who had been at the heart of calls for financial and corporate scrutiny of the project mentioned months back that work had stalled.

His view was corroborated by media outfits that visited the site at the time and found that no work was ongoing.

The Executive Director of the project, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah on Tuesday, August 30, confirmed the suspension of work despite the continued presence of contractors and their staff on site.

“We have the contractors and their staff on site, but the work has been suspended. We are hoping that within the next couple of weeks, as part of our fundraising and other initiatives we can begin work again,” he told a delegation that had come to donate towards the project.

He added thus: “our ability to complete this work keenly depends on Ghanaians supporting it.”

 Source: Ghanaweb