National Cathedral: Ablakwa Accuses Attorney-General Of Conflict of Interest In David Adjaye's Contract

• Opposition NDC MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has revealed that the contract awarded to Sir David Adjaye as consultant for the National Cathedral is flawed
• He said the contract was awarded to Sir Adjaye the when current Attorney-General Godfred Dame was both a Secretary for the cathedral and a board member of the Public Procurement Authority
• Ghana paid a whopping GH¢32 million to Sir David Adjaye and Associates for consultancy services on the project

Attorney-General Godfred Dame has been accused of breaching conflict of interest rules in awarding the contract to design the National Cathedral.

Opposition MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, claims at the time the contract was awarded to Sir David Adjaye, Mr Dame was both Secretary for the National Cathedral and board member of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

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The PPA awarded the contract to Sir David Adjaye for more than GH¢30 million.

In a Facebook post, the North Tongu legislator, who remains the fiercest independent critic of the project, called it “the world’s most infamous cathedral project.

“It is quite revealing to observe that when the National Cathedral was incorporated on 18th July, 2019, the then Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame was registered as Secretary.

“During the same period, he served on the board of the Public Procurement Authority, which approved David Adjaye’s irregular sole sourcing contract.

“A clear conflict of interest situation, particularly from additional evidence available to us,” he posted on Facebook with a snapshot of a document as evidence.

The government of Nana Akufo-Addo has paid GH¢32 million to Sir David Adjaye and Associates for consultancy services on the National Cathedral project.

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Deputy Finance Minister John Kumah has disclosed that the amount was paid from the Office of the President’s budget.

“Even though it may not be captured as a budget item because it is not under any specific MDA, it can form part of government expenditure as long as we have captured it in the budget that we were going to provide seed funding,” he told Citi News early June 2022.

“It is already a budget item provided for in the [Office of the President] budget that was used for that purpose, which is legal,” he added.

He made the revelation in response to Mr Ablakwa’s claim that the government has illegally spent millions of public funds on the project that the president promised would be with donations and contributions from the public and the Christian community in Ghana.

National Cathedral: Islamic Organisations Accuse Project CEO Of Lying About State Funding Of National Mosque

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YEN.com.gh reported previously that the Coalition of Muslim Organisations Ghana (COMOG) has said the CEO of the National Cathedral project peddled falsehood when he said the state contributed funds to erecting the National Mosque.

COMOG President Hajj Abdel-Manan AbdelRahman has released a statement dated Monday, June 13, 2022, accusing Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah of lying that the Government of Ghana spent state resources on the construction of the National Mosque located at Kanda in Accra.

“He made this spurious statement on the GTV Talking Point program aired on the evening of Sunday the 12th June 2022," the COMOG statement said.

Source: YEN.com.gh