Hot!
Parliament sets up ad hoc committee to probe National Cathedral project
Ghana’s Parliament has set up a committee to investigate the National Cathedral project after North Tongu lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa together with five other minority members filed a private member’s motion demanding the scrutiny of the project.
Mr Ablakwa has been making a series of corruption allegations with regard to the stalled project.
Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah adopting the motion for onward action by the leadership of the house on Thursday August 3 said “This motion is a very very important one and I pray that this house will approve this motion under order 919.
“Order 919 provides that the house at any time by motion appoint a special or Adhoc committee to investigate any matter of public importance.
“The National Cathedral project of Ghana is essentially the most expensive project in the history of Ghana. Already as we speak, this project has ballooned from 100 million to $400 million and it’s still a moving target, it is still rising.
“So far, about $58 million has been spent on the project and what we see has become a subject of considerable controversy. We only see a hole and we are not too sure really if it is $58 million that has gone into the project. We know that the project has been abandoned since March last year.”
“As we speak the cost continues to go up, there are liabilities, there are interests and suspension claims which on its own runs into about $52 million by my check,” he stated.
Credit:3news.com
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
More more more
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
