National Cathedral construction will continue despite MPs’ rejection of budget allocation – Dr Joyce Aryee
A member of the National Cathedral of Ghana's Board of Trustees, Dr. Joyce Rosalind Aryee, said that the National Cathedral project would go on even though the Ghanaian Parliament did not approve allocating GH80 million from the national budget to it.
According to her, the sum in question was only a portion of the seed money that the government had promised for the construction of the cathedral and “not the entire amount of money that is needed to construct and complete the edifice.” This explanation was given after the amount in question was rejected by Parliament.
Dr Joyce Aryee stated the following during an interview on Joy FM's Midday News program: “It does not imply that the project cannot continue on because I know you are going to contribute your money and I will bring mine, and anybody who we contact and is willing will provide theirs.”
On Thursday, she made the following statement: “Actually, those who are willing are the individuals making the money available for the building.” I believe that we should all maintain our composure and try to avoid becoming bothered.
Dr Joyce Aryee explained more specifically that the source of seed money comes from the Consolidated Vault.
Dr Joyce Aryee stated, “People have said that there has not been any transparency, but every year in the budget there has been some seed money not taken from what I understand to be the contingency fund, but I heard there's something called the contingency vault.” “People have said that there has not been any transparency.”
The previous Minister of State accepted that Parliament is within its rights to reject whatever it is that is presented as part of a budget or otherwise.
Recent events have resulted in the Minority in Parliament accusing Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of transferring an additional 25 million Ghana cedis to the National Cathedral Secretariat as seed money for the project without first receiving consent from Parliament.
On the other hand, Ken Ofori-Atta has refuted claims that he used money from the Consolidated Fund to finance the construction of the National Cathedral.
He amended his statement by saying, “I have not used any money from the contingency fund to make payments for the National Cathedral.”
Credit: Joy Fm, Accra
