The Board of the National Cathedral of Ghana has reacted to the latest installment of allegations levelled against a member of the board and its secretary, Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng.

Executive Director of the Cathedral project, Dr. Paul Opoku Mensah has explained how an amount of 2.6 million cedis was paid to a private company, JNT Talent Centre Limited and subsequently captured in official documentation as Contractors Mobilization.

GH¢2.6 million loan from board secretary

In an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, he explained that the Board Secretary only helped the board to get an interest-free loan to help them meet contractual obligations sometime in 2021.

“We had signed a contract, we were supposed to pay them (contractors) mobilization and that was part of the seed money from the state, and the state had actually transferred the money to the Minister of Finance but the Controller (and Accountant General) had asked for some time to pay it.

“We had already kind of postponed this payment to the contractors, so, a board member said he could help us top-up because he had some money we could just top it to pay the contractors,” he clarified.

He said this transaction took place in April 2021 at a time the Controller had assured that by September 15, the necessary transfers would be effected to the Cathedral Secretariat.

He added that the necessary documentation was put together for purposes of the transaction, “26th August 2021, we sent a formal letter requesting that this is a crisis situation, I can give you just this top up, there is no interest, nothing,” he stressed.

Ablakwa’s latest bombshell

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu made some explosive allegations against Reverend Kusi Boateng in a social media post dated January 16, 2023.

The MP, who has assumed a dogged interest in the National Cathedral project especially with respect to use of public funds for its construction alleged criminal dealings on the part of the board secretary in relation to the payment of GH¢2.6 million cedis to JNT Talent Centre Limited, a company he is directly associated with.

According to Ablakwa's findings, one Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, who is listed as a director of the company that received the amount from the Cathedral was the same as Reverend Kusi Boateng, who has allegedly been operating under the pseudonym.

In an explosive set of allegations which he described as the Tsar Bomba of all scandals, Ablakwa claimed that Reverend Kusi Boateng holds multiple passports and identification cards with some bearing the name Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.

Funding controversies

The cathedral project has been mired in controversies relating to the amount of public funds voted towards the construction.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed to Parliament that a total of GH¢339 million has so far been pumped into the facility from government.

The Minority in Parliament forced a GH¢80 million allocation in the 2023 budget to be diverted following concerns of lack of accountability with already disbursed funds.

About the National Cathedral Project

According to its website, the National Cathedral is a historic project that provides a sacred space and infrastructure for the formal religious activities of the nation, like state funerals and presidential inaugural services.

It is this national character that distinguishes it from the other Cathedrals in the country.

We are taking the bold vision of the President for a Sacred National infrastructure, linking it to the path-breaking design of iconic Architect Sir David Adjaye OBE, and organically anchoring these in world-class programs - including Africa’s first Museum of the Bible whose development is supervised by Cary Summers, the founding President of the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC.

We have engaged the very best of Ghana with the very best in the world. The result of the integration of the vision, design, and programming is an iconic infrastructure that provides a sacred space for the nation, attracts pilgrims and tourists, and includes a built-in economic engine for financial sustainability.

SARA/DO