The Executive Director of the National Cathedral Secretariat has revealed that the government has donated a total of GHȼ339 million for the construction of the National Cathedral project as of December 2022.

Speaking at the Bible reading marathon ongoing at the project site, Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah said that it is untrue that the National Cathedral Secretariat is unable to account for some of the money released to them by the government.

“The total amount paid by the government of Ghana to the project is GHȼ339 million. The amount is made up of the following; amount paid directly to the secretariat is GHȼ225 million and the amount paid directly to the consultant, Adjaye Associates is GHȼ113m. The two payments total GHȼ339m.”

Dr Opoku-Mensah noted that “There are no missing funds that could not be accounted for. The detailed accounting for this fund was provided to Parliament on December 15, 2022 by the Secretariat.”

He noted that his outfit is concerned about the misrepresentation of expenditure regarding the project, especially from Members of Parliament.

“For instance, the continuous misrepresentation of the contract with the consultant is worrying as none of the amount bandied around comes anywhere near the contracted amount,” he said.

“Rather than 34% that was said to have been paid to the architect, actually the contract figure is 12.5% when the Ministry of Works and Housing allows for 16.5%,” he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Opoku-Mensah and the National Cathedral Secretariat is optimistic that the project will be completed by 2024.

“Essentially, we believe that at the heart of our strategy is to raise a million Ghanaians who will give us GHȼ100 a month. If we can do that for just two years, we will have the capital resources,” he added.