Minority will thoroughly scrutinize National Cathedral expenditure – Haruna Iddrisu

The Minority in Parliament says it will thoroughly scrutinize the amount of money the government is pumping into the National Cathedral project.

According to them, there are so many controversies and secrecy by the government about the national monument.

Addressing a post-budget workshop in Ho, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu assured that no stone will be left unturned when the 2023 budget is tabled for debate on Tuesday, November 29.

He said the Minority is not against the building of such a monument. However, he pointed out that they need answers on the budgetary allocation, procurement, and other matters missing from the conversation.

“Ghana is a secular state and a Republic which guarantees freedom of faith, freedom of conscience, and freedom of religion, but when you make a budgetary allocation for the construction of a national cathedral at GH¢80 million, we must know what the total cost of that project is, how were procurements undertaken to assure value for money, what is the duration of the project, how much will it cost the State and when will the project be completed.”

“These are needful questions we will ask while we support it,” he added.

The project has seen a lot of controversies, as many Ghanaians continue to question the prudence of the state financing an edifice that is said to be President Akufo-Addo’s pledge to God.

The Minority in Parliament had accused Ofori-Atta of “unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 78 of the 1992 Constitution, supposedly for the construction of the President’s Cathedral.”

But testifying before an 8-member ad-hoc committee probing allegations in a vote of censure against him, the Minister denied the accusation saying, “with both humility and confidence, I have not breached the Constitution in making payments to support the construction of the National Cathedral of Ghana.”