Alleged Unconstitutional Withdrawals: I Get Quite Nervous About The Level Of Passion On Cathedral Construction - Ken Ofori-Atta

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has stated categorically that he made no unconstitutional withdrawals of money to fund the construction of the National Cathedral.

Appearing before the ad-hoc Committee on the public hearing of a motion of censure against him, the Minister said Parliament approved every money he took to finance the Cathedral.

Answering questions bordering on the constitutionality or otherwise of financial withdrawals for the National Cathedral, the Minister distinguished how he took monies towards the Cathedral.

"The question here seems to suggest that there was unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund. So, I went on to define the two different ones in which one might make a mistake and made it very clear that [a] we did not go through the Contingency Fund and that we went through the Contingency Vault...It was important that we made that distinction", he said in reply to a question by the Member of Parliament for North-Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of the Committee.

The Minister further shared his disappointment in the allegations of financial malfeasance against him in regards to the National Cathedral.

"I get quite nervous about the level of passion on the construction of the Cathedral. We certainly did receive parliamentary approval for whatever we do with our Contingency Vault and that is what I went through to do that", he stated.