STOP WORK ON CATHEDAL – Duncan Williams, Eastwood Anaba call for audit

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams and Rev. Eastwood Anaba, both members of the Board of Trustees tasked to oversee the construction of the National Cathedral    have called for an immediate suspension of the project and a financial audit conducted as a matter of urgency.

Duncan Williams, Founder and Leader of the Action Chapel International and Eastwood Anaba, founder and leader of the Fountain Gate Chapel and Eastwood Anaba Ministries  in a jointly moved resolution said the “current activities advancing the construction of Ghana’s National Cathedral shall be deferred until the atmospherics in Ghana are improved and the Audit of the Cathedral Account is done.”

They expressed regret that the current economic climate in Ghana presents obstacles to the timely construction and completion of The National Cathedral

The resolution  noted that: “That in the spirit and cause of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the current Board of Trustees of The National Cathedral shall appoint an independent, nationally recognized accounting firm to audit all public funds contributed to and spent by The National Cathedral. Auditors will also audit the overall cost of the project. This appointment of an auditor shall take place before the deferment of the activities of the Board of Trustees.”

The resolution from Duncan-Williams and Eastwood Anaba has been made public not long after the public got to know that as far back as August last year, the highly-respected Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, founder of the United Denominations originating from the Lighthouse Group of Churches, had also resigned as a Trustee after he cited some instances in which he alleged that unseen hands and undisclosed persons have taken major financial decisions regarding the funding of the construction of the Cathedral and made it seem as though those critical financial decisions involving figures in the range of millions of Dollars were taken by the Board of Trustees.

Bishop Dag, in the letter, said though he firmly believes in the vision of President Akufo-Addo to construct a National Cathedral for Ghana, the final amount at which the Cathedral was being constructed could have been cheaper and it made no sense to him why a loan was being taken for the construction of the project when that situation could have been avoided.

He said the fundraising strategy for the project was defective and in some instances, some of the fund-raising events have cost more than the amounts raised yet the defective strategy would not be changed.

Bishop Dag said for six years, all attempts and efforts by him to get answers to these challenges have not yielded any fruitful result as none of his letters to the Board has been responded to and in many instances; his concerns have been treated with open disdain.

Below are excerpts of the Resolution sponsored by Duncan-Williams and Eastwood Anaba:

We affirm: Support for President Akufo-Addo’s vision of a national cathedral to, among other things, stand as a testament, from the present to posterity, of Ghana’s faith in Christ and as an investment in Ghana’s tourism infrastructure;

We affirm: That Ghana’s has a distinctive comparative and competitive advantage to serve as the global epicenter and gathering place for Africa’s expansive and growing Christian population and others;

We affirm: And acknowledge that cathedrals take time to complete, notably:

• Paul’s Cathedral in London was built in 35 years;
• The Washington National Cathedral took 82 years to complete;
• The Notre Dame Cathedral in France was completed in about 100 years;
• Cologne Cathedral in Germany took 74 years to complete;
• The Milan Cathedral in Italy was completed in 579 years;

We affirm: Regret that the current economic climate in Ghana presents obstacles to the timely construction and completion of The National Cathedral;

We affirm: In the case of Ghana’s National Cathedral the words of African American poet Langston Hughes that a “dream deferred is not a dream denied,”

We therefore resolve: That in the spirit and cause of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the current Board of Trustees of The National Cathedral shall appoint an independent, nationally recognized accounting firm to audit all public funds contributed to and spent by The National Cathedral. Auditors will also audit the overall cost of the project. This appointment of an auditor shall take place before the deferment of the activities of the Board of Trustees;

We therefore resolve: That current activities advancing the construction of Ghana’s National Cathedral shall be deferred until the atmospherics in Ghana are improved and the Audit of the Cathedral Account is done;

We therefore resolve: That within this period, Board of Trustee members will not engage media on National Cathedral matters;

We further declare: That this Resolution to defer activities of The National Cathedral in no way impugns the vision or intent of The National Cathedral, but rather ensures that it is advanced and built on a foundation of integrity, efficiency and quality while garnering and maintaining public trust and support