A Senior Research Fellow at the Kumasi Technical Institute, Professor Smart Sarpong has attributed the controversy surrounding the construction of Ghana’s National Cathedral to incorrect assumptions made by the government.
Speaking on the Wednesday, October 18, 2023, edition of Peace FM’s Kokrokoo, Prof Sarpong noted that the government relying on the fact that majority of Ghanaians fall within the Christian faith thought the project would receive public acceptance rather than scrutiny.
“The Cathedral is at a point I describe it as a product of wrong assumption. Between the motive of the project and how Ghanaians were going to receive it, whoever birthed the idea assumed wrongly.
"Majority of Ghanaians are Christians so I think the idea was that building a cathedral was going to go without probity, accountability, due diligence and most importantly it was going to go without public scrutiny and that is where the challenge is emanating from,” he stated.
His comment comes on the back of the resignation of two renowned clergymen from the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral project.
Early this year, some members of the Board of Trustees on the Cathedral bowed out of the project.
Dr. Mensa Otabil, the General Overseer of International Central Gospel Church, and Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, Founder and leader of the Lighthouse Chapel International, were among those who stepped aside as they raised concerns over the project.
In the latest development, the Founder and General Overseer of the United Denominations of Action Chapel Churches Worldwide, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, and the President of the Eastwood Anaba Ministries, Rev. Eastwood Anaba, have also both resigned from their positions on the Board of Trustees.
They cited in a letter that their conscience and faith could not permit them to remain on the Board.
They noted, as reasons, their call for an independent audit into the financing of the cathedral and the failure of the government to heed to their call.
Meanwhile, the National Cathedral Secretariat has refuted claims that it has failed to conduct an audit into the construction.
In response to the resignation of Archbishop Duncan-Williams and Rev. Eastwood Anaba, the secretariat said it had already contracted a private firm to audit the accounts for the project.
The secretariat, however, emphasised that it had turned down a request by the clergymen calling for a suspension of all construction related activities related to the project pending the outcome of the audit.
GA/SARA
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