Two eminent clergymen and members of the controversial National Cathedral project’s Board of Trustees have called for its immediate suspension and audit.
The two, Archbishop Duncan Williams and Reverend Eastwood Anaba, say their decision is based on the project’s controversy.
According to them, the suspension will pave the way for the Ghanaian people to be provided with transparency and accountability.
In a memo sent to the Board of Trustees on Monday, January 23, and obtained by OilCityRadio.com, they requested an independent audit of the project’s expenditures.
The auditor(s) must be nationally recognized, according to the two respected preachers.
The two respected preachers said the auditor(s) must be one that is nationally recognised.
“That in the spirit and cause of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the current Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral shall appoint an independent, nationally recognised accounting firm to audit all public funds contributed to and spent by the National Cathedral.
“Auditors will also audit the overall cost of the project. This appointment of an auditor shall take place before the deferment of activities of the Board of Trustees,” excerpts of the memo said.
Meanwhile, the two Bible scholars have stated that the project should be halted until the country’s economic conditions improve.
“That current activities advancing the construction of Ghana’s National Cathedral shall be deferred until the atmospherics in Ghana are improved and the audit of the Cathedral account is done,” excerpts of the memo added.
Since President Akufo-Addo first announced the National Cathedral Project, it has been one of the most contentious public issues.
Apart from questions of accountability, which the Minority in Parliament has repeatedly raised, there have also been concerns about the project’s relevance in light of the country’s economic crisis.
Among the many issues, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, founder of the LightHouse Chapel International, resigned from the Cathedral’s Board of Trustees in August 2022.
By doing so, the preacher left no specific reason for his departure, leaving the public to rely on their own conjectures and speculations as to why the celebrated man of God left the scene.
However, five months after his resignation, the Bishop’s reasons for leaving the Board have been revealed.
The seasoned Bible teacher stated in his resignation letter, which appears to have recently been leaked, that his unresolved concerns about the cost of the National Cathedral, among other issues, prompted his departure.
The Bishop addressed the letter to the Chairman of the National Cathedral’s Board of Trustees.
“I feel that the treatment of the issues I have raised in my several letters has been unfortunate. My letters have been ignored in the past; not attended to for years, and at best addressed flippantly”, Dag Heward-Mills said.
“You may recall I have spoken passionately and written extensively about the costs, the design, the location, the fundraising, the mobilization of the churches, and the role of the trustees.
“These, if heeded, would have made our project more achievable. Generally speaking, my inputs, my opinions, and my letters have been trivialized and set aside”, portions of the letter further disclosed.
