Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudeto Ablakwa, has provided a startling revelation with regards to the National Cathedral project which has seen construction works suspended due to lack of funds.
According to Mr Ablakwa, payment vouchers intercepted by his outfit indicate that the Consultant of the project deemed controversial, Sir David Adjaye, was paid an amount of GHS32.07 million for opening bids and interviewing contractors.
This amount, per the document sighted by The Independent Ghana, was paid in 2021.
“Latest intercepted payment vouchers reveal how David Adjaye was paid an incredible GHS32.07million on February 18, 2021 just for opening bids and interviewing contractors for Akufo-Addo’s sleazy National Cathedral project,” he wrote on August 14.
He added that “Architects of considerable renown and project management experts I have engaged are in total shock.” I can’t wait for judgement day after 7th December, 2024.”
Mr Ablakwa further registered his support for the NDC flagbearer, John Mahama’s resolve to ensure the law goes after every government official who has in one way or another caused financial loss to the station through corruption.
“This is another reason why I am in total agreement with incoming President John Mahama that if we deal ruthlessly with blatant corruption and reckless dissipation of state resources such as the National Cathedral heist, we can comfortably fund the NDC’s No-Fees-Stress Policy of paying admission fees for first year tertiary students. Corruption and State Capture shall surely be defeated!”
In January 2023, the Executive Director of the National Cathedral Secretariat, Dr. Paul Poku Mensah, revealed that the Akufo-Addo government had spent a whopping amount of almost GH¢340 million on the construction of the controversial national cathedral by the close of December 2022.
This includes an amount of GH¢113 million paid directly to the Consultant, Sir David Adjaye and GH¢225 million paid directly to the Secretariat.
Dr. Paul Poku Mensah made this known in a status report on the National Cathedral delivered at the Bible Reading Marathon Thanksgiving Service at the project site on Tuesday, January 2, 2023.
“For purposes of clarity, I want to report a verbatim memo I sent on this issue dated 19th January 2022 and addressed to the Clerk of Parliament. The indication was that the government has given us GH¢339 million and we could account for GH¢225 million leaving GH¢114 million missing. Here, I quote what I wrote to the Clerk.”
“As we indicated to the Committee on Thursday, December 15, 2022, the total amount paid by the government of Ghana to the National Cathedral project is GH¢339 million. This total is made up of the following: the amount paid directly to the National Cathedral Secretariat is GH¢225 million. The amount paid directly to the Consultant, Adjaye Associates & Design Team is GH¢113.040.54.67 million The two payments total GH¢339.003.064.86.”
“So, there are no missing funds that could not be accounted for. Secondly, the detailed account for these funds was provided to Parliament on December 15, 2022, by the Secretariat. In the case of the accounting from the Secretariat, this involves among others, total payments made to the contractor, and total payments made to the Bible Museum and Biblical Gardens Design Team.”
Dr. Paul Opoku Mensah expressed displeasure over what he described as a misrepresentation of facts on the project by some Members of Parliament.
“While projects of this nature will always have discontent, we are nonetheless concerned about the misrepresentations particularly when it comes from Members of Parliament. For instance, the continued misrepresentation of the contract to the consultants is worrying as none of the amount bandied around comes anywhere near the contract amount.
Rather than 34% that they said we’d paid the architect, actually, the contract figure is 12.5% when the Ministry of Works and Housing allows for 15.5%. And the 12.5% will not change irrespective of what happens to the total cost. More critically, the contract is not for an architect, but for a set of consultants’ services involving 15 international and Ghanaian firms of which Sir David Adjaye Associates is the lead consultant,” he added.