The National Cathedral Secretariat has responded to a series of allegations made by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on how it was going about its operations in the United States of America (USA) in relation to the cathedral project.
Mr Ablakwa in a post on social media and some radio interviews this week alleged that he had uncovered some “illegal” activities of the secretariat in the USA, which was unknown in the Parliament of Ghana.
He listed them as registering the Cathedral project under a different name in Washington, using an alleged “fraudulent” address on the registration documents in the US, with no member or clergymen on the Ghana Board of Trustees being part of the listed in the US incorporation documents, the identity of two unknown men to the Parliament of Ghana in the US incorporation documents and the payment of US$6 million to an American consultant, which Mr Ablakwa claims he has met and seen in the US.
In what he termed as “five bombshells” on the National Cathedral Project, Mr Ablakwa claimed that the Secretariat had registered the “National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc”, as a non-profit organisation in the United States of America.
Explaining that he uncovered this when he recently visited the USA, Mr Ablakwa questioned why none of the trustee members of the National Cathedral was named in the articles of incorporation and list of trustees as submitted to US authorities but the names of governors and authorised persons as contained in the two-year report for Domestic and Foreign Filing Entity are Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah, Dr Vernon Darko and Eric Okyere Darko.
Response
The National Cathedral Secretariat in a press release dated May 2, 2023, responding to the issues stated that even though it considers issues of accountability critical to the project, and welcomes “Parliamentary oversight of state resources in the project”, Parliamentary oversight of the project should be exercised in Parliament or through statutory bodies established for the purpose and not on social media.
The press release signed by the Executive Director, of the National Cathedral of Ghana, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, said the Secretariat is determined not to be drawn into, or engage in a constant tit-for-tat social media war on the project.
He, however, said the Secretariat will provide information and or clarification on different aspects of the project as and when it is necessary for the purposes of accountability and transparency.
“However, we insist, again, that Parliamentary oversight is not exercised on social media, but in Parliament or through statutory bodies established for the purpose,” Dr Opoku-Mensah said.
The North Tongu Member of Parliament has been very vocal about the National Cathedral project on social media.
In one of his posts this week on Facebook, Mr Ablakwa said: “As promised, here we go with Episode 2 of the American Edition of “National” Cathedral Scandals which is bound to hit many Ghanaians like artillery bombardment.”
