The Executive Director of the National Cathedral of Ghana, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, has stated that former board members Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams and Rev. Eastwood Anaba were duly briefed on the status of an ongoing independent audit into the activities of the project.
In a rebuttal statement to a letter from the clergyman to President Akufo-Addo, the Secretariat noted that an independent audit by Deloitte had been decided by the board before the January 2023 resolution by the clergymen calling for a stoppage of all activities of the project until after the audit had been carried out.
The Secretariat said that after the audit had been set up by Deloitte in their system by May 2023, it duly commenced, adding that meetings were held by the board on June 5, 2023, and September 27, 2023, where the Executive Director provided updates on the ongoing audit.
According to Dr. Opoku-Mensah, they have since been awaiting an audit report from Deloitte to relaunch their fund-raising campaign.
He said that although Archbishop Duncan-Williams and Rev. Anaba were not present in the meetings on June 5 and September 27, all necessary documents following the meeting were sent to all board members who were not physically present.
Dr. Opoku-Mensah labelled claims by the clergyman of not being privy to any update on the audit as false.
“Although Archbishop Duncan Williams and Rev. Eastwood Anaba were not present at the June 2023 and September 2023 meetings, they and all other board members who were not physically present at the meeting were sent copies of all the documents for the board meeting, including the Executive Director’s report. The claim that they have received no information whatsoever on the audit process is therefore false”, the statement explained.
Dr. Opoku Mensah added that the board rejected the January 2023 resolution of the two clergymen because the audit process had already been decided on and that it was fraught with political undertones.
Below is the statement from the National Cathedral Secretariat.
