North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said that on October 29, 2020, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on the request of the Chief of Staff Frema Opare, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, authorized the release of GHS142.7million for national cathedral “planned activities”.
He said an amount of ¢200million of unconstitutional releases have been done so far.
In a tweet on Wednesday June 8, he said “Latest exposé on Akufo-Addo’s Cathedral. On October 29, 2020; Ken Ofori-Atta on the request of Prez Akufo-Addo’s Chief of Staff, authorized the release of a gargantuan GHS142.7million for national cathedral “planned activities” GHS200million of unconstitutional releases so far.”
Mr Ablakwa earlier questioned the government for releasing an amount of ¢25million for the National Cathedral project in the midst of economic challenges.
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In his view, the funds could have been used to pay trainees under the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme, school feeding caterers and also service personnel.
His comments come after the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance authorized the release of ¢25million for the construction of the National Cathedral.
A letter dated 31st March and written to the Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) by the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori Atta said “Authority is hereby granted to release the sum of 25million Ghana Cedis as additional seed money to the National Cathedral Secretariat for the construction of the National for part payment of the outstanding claim from RIBADE.”
But in a tweet reacting to this, Mr Ablakwa said “Considering the current debilitating economic crisis, why is the Akufo-Addo govt releasing a colossal GHS25million for the National Cathedral project? Shockingly, this is the same govt claiming lack of funds to pay NABCo trainees, School feeding caterers, service personnel, the 3-year no-textbooks-syndrome, etc.
“This gross lack of priority cannot be pleasing to the compassionate God we all serve. It is also important to stress that this manifestly insensitive conduct is without parliamentary approval — we shall be demanding answers in Parliament.”
Full Facebook post below:
As promised, here are more calamitous revelations on unconstitutional payments by the Akufo-Addo government purportedly to finance a Cathedral project.
On 29th October, 2020—few weeks to the national elections, Ken Ofori-Atta, acting on a request by President Akufo-Addo’s Chief of Staff, authorized the release of a gargantuan GHS142,762,500.00 for national cathedral “planned activities.”
It is of considerable consternation to note that contrary to legal requirements, government concealed this ginormous GHS142.7million from Parliament as they deliberately failed to disclose this item as part of their Expenditure Returns of 2020 during the 2021 Budget consideration in Parliament.
This 2020 cathedral expenditure was also kept away from the Auditor-General in his 2020 audit.
So far, adding this latest exposé to our previous leaks, the Akufo-Addo government has spent a mind-boggling GHS199,832,603.00 of taxpayer funds on a cathedral which was originally presented to Ghanaians as a personal pledge to God that will not be executed with taxpayer funds.
Unfortunately, digging into the tons of documents divinely in our possession, we regret to report to Ghanaians that many more millions have been paid illegally which we shall continue to put out to the glory of God and in the overall national interest. On a further scarier note, the figures we are currently reviewing do not look like anything near a “seed-capital.”
This GHS200million cathedral-gate has turned out to be the biggest presidential scandal in Ghana’s entire history.
It is terribly shocking how our President and his men could engage in such ungodly, illegal and insensitive conduct. They seem to have absolutely no fear of God?
Clearly, in the name of a cathedral project, a corrupt slush fund has been created to siphon taxpayer funds from the suffering masses on the blind side of Parliament, the Auditor-General, CSOs and other accountability systems.
Instructively, these illegal diversions took place when government was engaged in massive vote-buying to win the 2020 elections; it was also the period COVID-19 had peaked and placed enormous pressure on our health delivery as many Ghanaians died, and yet President Akufo-Addo claimed he couldn’t find the resources to fulfill his Agenda 111 pledge of building new hospitals.
I have no doubt in my mind that were Jesus Christ to return to Earth at this moment, He will pick up His whip again and visit Ghana’s cathedral construction site as He did to those who corrupted His Temple in Jerusalem.