Halt public funding of National Cathedral project – John Mahama to government

Former president John Dramani Mahama has called on government to halt public funding for the National Cathedral project. He believes that the construction of the project, especially in the current economic conditions in the country, is not a priority. John Mahama in a Facebook post on November 6 also urged for a value-for-money audit of the project which he says would “open the way for believers who wish to contribute to its construction.” “The public funding of the national cathedral, particularly at this time, must stop. Being a Christian myself, and deeply appreciative of the centrality of God in nation-building, I agree with most Ghanaians who believe that the project cannot constitute a top priority of government at this moment, warranting further injection of scarce public funds,” John Mahama wrote. He continued, “because of the non-transparency of the processes and procurements associated with the project, I believe that the cathedral project should be subjected to a value-for-money audit in other to open the way for believers who wish to contribute to its construction to do so.” Since the announcement of the National Cathedral project, its construction has courted widespread controversies, condemnation and backlash from a section of the Ghanaian public, CSOs and lawmakers. Although President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has insisted that the project will be delivered, the construction has been impacted by a lack of insufficient funds and has since been suspended by the Secretariat’s Executive. Background In May this year, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced that an amount of US$25 million had been released to enable the project consultants to undertake certain aspects of the construction. According to the minister, the amount which was tagged as “seed money” was paid in November 2020 to the project consultants. Meanwhile, the recently published 2021 Auditor-General's report discovered that a total of GH¢142,762,500 from the national coffers was spent on the Ghana National Cathedral project in 2021. The particular expenditure was however captured under the government’s priority programmes and interventions for the year under review. MA/FNOQ