Contrary to claims by Minority Members of Parliament that funds for the construction of the National Cathedral were unconstitutionally drawn from the Consolidated Fund, Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has indicated that Parliament gave approval for the withdrawal of those funds.
According to the Minister, the about GH¢400m was approved by Parliament under ‘Other Government Obligations’ which forms part of the Contingency Vault.
“…We certainly did receive parliamentary approval for whatever we do over contingency vault and that is what I went through to do that…under other government obligation and I believe I have the liberty at that point, ” Mr Ofori-Atta disclosed to the Ad hoc Committee hearing the censure motion against him by the proponents of the motion, the Minority in Parliament.
The censure was brought about, following accusations by the Minority that the Minister is the cause of the untold economic hardships on the people of Ghana.
According to the sponsors of the motion, who are being led by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister’s actions and inactions at the Finance Ministry is what has caused the depreciation of the cedi, high inflation, high fuel prices, high food prices and increasing debt stock in the country.
They, therefore, moved a motion of censure stating seven grounds upon which the Minister has run the country aground and for that matter should be removed from office.
The second ground upon which the Minister is being censured is the “unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution supposedly for the construction of the President’s Cathedral.”
The disclosure about the money being sourced from the Contingency Vault under ‘Other Government Obligations’ was when the MP for North Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, sought to correct the Minister that the proponents of the motion never said the Minister withdrew any money from the contingency vault, but rather from the consolidated Fund.
This was after the Minister had noted in an earlier submission that withdrawals were made from the contingency vault and not contingency fund.
Mr Ablakwa: Hon Co-chairs I will begin my substantive question on the National Cathedral. I note from the Minister’s response that he appears to set his own parameters and proceed to answer them.
He says at page 6, item number 12, that “Hon. 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. It appears the proponents have confused the Contingency Fund with the Contingency Vault. Let me explain. There is a difference between Contingency Fund and Contingency Vault.”
Co-chairs I have been going through the verbatim report of the proponents and I didn’t hear them say this. Mr Haruna Iddrisu said that “I would like to start with the National Cathedral.
Ghana is a much respected country where there is co-existence between both moslems and christians alike.
Nobody is against the president promising and honoring God with a cathedral for the expression of the Christian faith. But when public resources are used for that purpose, it makes us to call into question.
I just gave the clerk to the committee a warrant signed by the Minister for Finance for some amount for the cathedral and that is what you are holding.
I will tender it for evidence and say that we are aware that by the warrant signed by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta on 29th October, 2022 an expenditure of GH¢42,762,500 was allocated for the construction of the cathedral. We want to know when parliamentary approval was granted for this purpose…”
Nowhere in this verbatim report did the proponent say that money was taken from the contingency vault or contingency fund.
The grounds are very clear …. I want to find out from the Minister where this matter of contingency fund and contingency vault is coming from because we don’t see that in the verbatim report.
Finance Minister responds
Finance Minister: Mr Chairman, the question here seems to suggest that there were unconstitutional withdrawals from the consolidated fund. So I went on to define the two different funds in which one might make a mistake and made it very clear that we did not go through the contingency fund and that we went through the contingency vault… It was very important that I drew that distinction.
…The MP (Mr Ablakwa) was saying that it was unconstitutional to have withdrawn proceeds from the consolidated fund and I was making it clear that whatever money that comes into the consolidated fund goes into a number of items that could be anything and in there contingency vote could be resources that we go into or contingency fund which we did not use. And so that rarely is my line of discussion.
Mr Patrick Boamah interjects
Mr Patrick Boamah, MP for Okaikoi Central, then posed a direct question to the Minister to respond to whether or not he made unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund to which the Minister responded ‘No’.
MrAblakwa continues with his questioning
Mr Ablakwa then asked the Minister to tell the committee how Parliament approved the money, if indeed his withdrawals were constitutional.
Mr Ablakwa: I have two withdrawal warrants here. Did you get any parliamentary approvals to proceed with these withdrawals in the 2020 budget and the 2022 budget. In 2020, you withdrew a GH¢142.7m and in 2022 you issued instructions to the Controller and Accountant General to withdraw GH¢25m.I have gone through the 2020 budget and the appropriation and I have gone through the 2022 budget and the appropriation and there are no such approvals. So if you contend that there were approvals can you help us with the basis for that contention?
Finance Minister: I get quiet nervous about the level of passion on the construction of the cathedral. We certainly did receive parliamentary approval for whatever we do over contingency vault and that is what I went through to do that.
Mr Ablakwa: Can you please help us with evidence of that approval?
Finance Minister: Under other government obligations and I believe I have the liberty at that point.
Mr Ablakwa: Honourable Co-chairs, I hold in my hand the appropriation for the respective years and I also have the report on office of government machinery for the years in issue; 2020 and 2022. Nowhere in their report to Parliament when they accounted for expenditure in those years did they report to the House. Can the Minister for Finance tell us why that happened because the practice is even if you come under contingency, you must report to the finance committee as you seek approval for the ensuing year.
Why was Parliament kept in the dark all these years… How is it that until we intercepted these documents, Parliament didn’t know at all that apparently public funds were going into the project contrary to the initial promises anyway?
Finance Minister: Honourable Co-chairs, it is rarely not a practice for a line by line reporting except under goods and services, etc. If it is a new approach that you would like to suggest I think we will consider it.
