National Cathedral site has the world’s most expensive ‘hole’ – Mahama’s aide

The current state of the National Cathedral site is of a dug-out parcel of land of several acres located in a prime area in the capital, Accra.

Work has stalled largely as a result of lack of funds for a project that has courted controversy and split public opinion right down the middle.

One of the major issues that has bedeviled the project is the use of government funds contrary to an earlier promise by the government that it will be built from contributions from the Christian fraternity.

The last time government spoke to the cost so far was in December 2022 when Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta told a censure committee of Parliament that a total of GHC399 million of tax payer funds has gone into the project.

He defended the source of funding explaining how withdrawals from the Contingency Fund for seed money payments were above board.

In the view of Stan Dogbe, an aide to former president John Dramani Mahama, the current state of the project, where there is a dug-out space awaiting funding and works, meant that Ghana was currently home to the world’s most expensive ‘hole.’

“The most expensive ‘hole’ ever dug anywhere in the world. It cost Ghana a whopping GHC 399 million to dig this hole only- for a cathedral that no one knows how much it will finally cost us,” he tweeted on Saturday, February 4.

His tweet was accompanied by a drone shot of the construction site.

Ablakwa goes after secretary to Board of Trustees of National Cathedral

Member of Parliament for North Tongu and Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has over the last few months published instances of corporate governance and alleged financial infractions on the part of government and trustees in the building of the Cathedral.

The Member of Parliament has since January 2023 disclosed statutory documentation purporting to prove that Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, is operating under the pseudonym Kwabena Adu Gyamfi for criminal purposes.

The MP has so far released a number of passports, drivers’ license, Tax Identification Number data and details of company registration that Kusi Boateng (Adu Gyamfi) has used in the past and some he continues to use.

In the latest installment of his posts, Ablakwa said a statement by the NIA on the Ghana Card status of Kwabena Adu Gyamfi confirmed that in their records, Victor Kusi Boateng did not exist, a claim he made last week.

He has justified his publications of Kusi Boateng’s documents with the view that the clergyman was using two names because he was engaging in criminal activities with one of the identities (i.e. Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.)

Ablakwa has stood by an accusation that the pastor’s company (JNS Talent Center) was paid an unmerited sum from the National Cathedral kitty, even though the secretariat has explained that the GHC2.6 million paid to Rev Kusi Boateng was a loan repayment.

According to Ablakwa, the Board of Trustees never discussed acquiring a loan facility, and at the time the loan was acquired, the Cathedral had about $6 million in its bank accounts.