By: Henrietta Afful
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta says he has not withdrawn funds from the Contingency Fund for the President’s National Cathedral project.
Addressing members of the Ad hoc committee in Parliament House today, November 18, 2022, the Finance Minister indicated that funding for the National Cathedral comes from the Contingency Vote and not the Contingency Fund.
“Honourable co-chairs, three days ago, when the proponents were here, they alleged that I had made payments from the contingency fund to support the national cathedral. I want to state that this is just not true. Let me be categorical, I have taken no money from the Contingency Fund to make payments for the National Cathedral,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said.
“…the withdrawals were lawfully done from the Contingency Vault and not from the Contingency Fund as alleged by the proponents” he added.
The Finance Minister appeared at a Public Hearing of Motion of Censure leveled against him by the Minority.
In all, seven charges were brought against him but the Ad hoc Committee dropped two of the charges.
The Minority’s grounds for seeking the motion of censure against the Finance minister are; Unconstitutional withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund, Illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts, deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament, fiscal recklessness leading to the crash of the Ghana Cedi, Alarming incompetence and frightening ineptitude and Gross mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy.
Mr. Ofori Atta has however debunked the five charges leveled against him insisting that he has served the nation with “integrity and dignity.”
