Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, has urged Ghanaians to ignore the negative publicity about the project and contribute to its construction since they will account for a every pesewa that is donated to the board.
According to him, the Board of Trustees tasked with the responsibility of mobilizing funds and overseeing the project are very transparent with regards to the funds and other relevant details about the Cathedral.
In a bid to boost public confidence, Rev. Kusi Boateng declared that all 13 members of the Board of Trustees are successful and accomplished personalities and would not steal from the National Cathedral fund.
“I want to encourage every Ghanaian that with our pedigree and with the kind of things that by the grace of God we’ve been able to accomplish, none of us is interested in even a dollar of the poor man’s money,” he said in an interview on Angel FM’s Anopa Bofoɔ Morning Show on Friday, July 1, 2022.
He further encouraged the public to reach out to the secretariat when they have any concerns about the project.
”I don’t take salaries from my church and I will never do so and so I can’t venture into the National Cathedral’s coffers to steal for someone to die in the hospital which would be a curse on me…we are very accountable and so if you have any questions just call our secretariat and we would declare it,” he added.
He expressed the team’s commitment to fulfill the mandate handed them by President Akufo-Addo despite the numerous challenges.
He told the host, Kwamena Sam Biney, that “all the trustees are so resolute and determined to honour our mandate…because if we don’t accomplish it we will be judged. More than 11 times people have met me including a prominent Lawyer who looked me in the face and said pastor ‘if you [trustees] fail to build this cathedral we will never forgive you and posterity will never forgive you…,'” he said.
While setting the records straight about issues surrounding the Cathedral, Mr Kusi Boateng admitted that one major challenge is that there is no model anywhere in the world for the National Cathedral to guide Ghana’s project hence, the struggles.
He however declared that “we want to finish building the cathedral to make a point that God is able to do all things.”
The secretary also stated that the about USD20 million given to Adjaye and Associates is meant to pay the over 15 consultants under them who participated in the design and Cathedral planning.
“It is not only the drawing that they did, but we did not want to take any responsibility for anything should there be a problem. We didn’t want them to say you took us as architects yet you brought in your own structural engineer, alternative engineers, quantity surveyors and all these consultants and so if something doesn’t go well then it’s your fault. So we left all these in the hands of Adjaye and Associates and so all that money didn’t go to them.”
He further declared that Ghana’s Cathedral which costs USD350 million is bigger than the Washington Bible Museum in terms of content, space and technology.
