Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of parliament for North Tongu, expressed dismay at how the government had used the monies allotted for the contentious national cathedral project up to this point.
In his most recent Facebook post, the MP, who has been on a mission to expose all that is wrong with the project, disclosed that, of the more than $58 million earmarked for it, only US$22.07 million got to the contractors, RIBADE JV, for real construction.
Government has already come under fire for wasting significant amounts of the money designated for the cathedral on consulting services and other items.
Ghanaians will be shocked to hear this morning that only a small portion of the US$58.14 million in public funds that were illegally withheld without parliamentary approval for Akufo-Addo’s cathedral project—US$22.07 million—went to the contractors, RIBADE JV—for actual construction.
He claimed that the contractors’ disclosure to parliament of particulars of how the US$ 58.14 million budget was used for the project exposed this.
According to Mr. Ablakwa, the submitted document offered a “comprehensive analysis of how they [RIBADE JV] used the US$22.07 million received between January 2021 and February 2022 when they were forced to halt work due to “lack of funds,” despite the fact that much more money had been released from government coffers secretly and without the knowledge of Parliament.
This indicates that more than US$ 36 million was spent on things other than their core function of construction,” he continued, referring to the US$ 58.14 million in taxpayer money that was improperly granted for Akufo-Addo’s cathedral.
“Now that we are aware of it, only a pitiful 37.9% of the total public funds released were given to the contractors.”
The lawmaker did point out, however, that questions had been raised regarding how RIBADE JV used the US$22.07 million.
He thus questioned if the $100 million the government requested to import steel for the project would be used effectively.
“In any case, given their own shady past, there is no guarantee that, should they ever receive US$ 100 million, all of that money will be used for the purpose for which it was intended.”
The National Cathedral Secretariat has asserted without wavering that the project has been carried out without any misconduct or corrupt acts.
For the sake of accountability and openness, it just hired famous auditing company Deloitte to examine its records.
