Minority wins vote to reject GH¢80m budget for National Cathedral

• Posted on December 21, 2022December 21, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Minority members on the Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee of Parliament have won by a majority decision to reject the GH¢80 million additional budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture for the National Cathedral of Ghana.

The allocation was contained in the Appropriations Bill of the 2023 fiscal policy.

According to Ranking Member on the Committee Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, officials of the Ministry failed to convince them about the allocation and also account for the over GH¢300 million already spent on the project.

He said officials of the Ministry of Finance could also not give ample reason for the allocation.

The Minority members on the Committee, therefore, called for voting to decide the matter.

As of the time of voting, they were more than the Majority members.

The Minority, therefore, won by an 11-10 majority votes.

Nonetheless, the other allocations of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture were approved.

“We asked for a vote and I think today God was on the people of Ghana’s side. We voted and we were in the majority.”

The Member of Parliament for Ellembelle Constituency, however, expressed concerns that the Majority may use their numbers to overturn this decision when it gets to the plenary.

For now, he assured, Ghanaians should be content that no more funds will be pumped into the controversial project from the government coffers.