Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance, claims that all monies made for the National Cathedral were paid legally. He asserted that the payments were not made from the Contingency Fund as the Minority claimed, but rather from the Contingency Vote under the “Other Government Obligations” vote.
He was addressing claims that by contributing to the National Cathedral of Ghana’s building, he had violated the Constitution. I have not taken any money out of the Contingency Fund to pay bills for the National Cathedral, he insisted.
According to the finance minister, the “Other Government Obligations” vote, which is approved by the finance committee and included in the annual appropriations acts ratified by Parliament, includes a line for the contingency vote.
He claims that it is customary when creating the annual budget to account for potential expenses that have not yet been completely costed at the time the budget is presented. These expenses are covered by provisions made in the contingency budget.
For instance, he claimed that no special funding had been set down in the 2014 budget for Ghana’s attendance at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. However, the Cabinet of President John Mahama approved approximately $9.622 million for that competition in March 2014, including that sum that was used to fly the players to Brazil in a private plane.
A more recent example, he continued, is Ghana’s involvement in Qatar, where the Black Stars competed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which occurred well after the 2022 budget, which was presented on November 16, 2021, was approved by Parliament. Mr. Ofori-Atta pointed out that while no specific sum was planned for it, the government was nevertheless able to properly provide cash for the team to take part in the competition because of the Contingency Vote.
Similar to this, he asserted that the National Cathedral’s expenses were covered by the “Other Government Obligations” vote, as had been the practice before his appointment, and he assured that he has documents of multiple payments from the contingency vote going back to 2015 to disclose.
He stated that the National Cathedral is a state-owned company limited by guarantee, under the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, and that it is not the President’s cathedral as claimed by the minority. He also stated that the Attorney General issued an opinion on January 6, 2022, which confirmed this.
The Finance Minister pointed out that in paragraph 156 of the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, he declared on the floor of Parliament the government’s support for the National Cathedral as well as its commitment to facilitate construction by providing the land, the Secretariat, and seed money, which constitutes policy approval of the Budget following the lengthy discussion.
The nation and Parliament have since received frequent briefings on the status of the National Cathedral’s construction, he continued. The establishment of the Board of Trustees and Secretariat for the Cathedral was announced in Paragraph 385 of the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, Mr. Ofori-Atta.
He also highlighted Paragraph 279 of the Mid-Year Review of the 2020 Budget Statement, which included an update on the groundbreaking ceremony that was performed on March 5, 2020, to formally kick off the project’s construction phase. He claims that the House was informed of the Letter of Intent (LoI) signed on November 25, 2020, between NCG Trustees and RIBADE JV, in paragraphs 1132 and 1134 of the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy (led by Rizzanni de Eccher with M Barbisotti & Sons and Desimone).
The Finance Minister outlined how the same budget revealed Apostle Prof. Opoku-nomination Onyinah’s as the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees beginning on February 8, 2021. According to him, paragraphs 354 and 355 of the mid-year review of the 2021 budget statement announced the expansion of the cathedral project to include the Bible Museum of Africa (BMOA) and Biblical Garden, as well as the creation of the 100-Cedis-a-Month “Ketewa Biara Nsua” Club, in keeping with the original plan to encourage as many donors as possible to contribute to the establishment of this national monument.
