In a striking display of governmental intransigence, officials of the National Cathedral Project have been processed to receive their September salaries today, September 30, 2024, under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration. This comes despite widespread public outrage over the misuse of US$58.1 million, which has resulted in the world’s most expensive pit, now humorously dubbed a swimming pool in line with Bawumia’s upgrade theory. Notably, no work has been done on the National Cathedral project since March 2022.
As the frustration of Ghanaians reaches a boiling point, these well-compensated political appointees of the 31-month-old abandoned project will be heading to their banks with smiles. My thorough tracking of the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) System confirms that the September 2024 salaries for the following officials are ready for disbursement:
- Dr. Paul Opoku Mensah
- Position: Overseer of the National Cathedral
- Assignment/Employee Number: 1249725
- Pay Date: September 30, 2024
- Personal Salary Amount: GHS29,838.00
- Receiving Uninterrupted Salaries Since:November 7, 2017
- Rev. Father Ebenezer Saka Ameyaw
- Position: Church Relation Manager
- Assignment/Employee Number: 1467567
- Pay Date: September 30, 2024
- Personal Salary Amount: GHS20,721.00
- Receiving Uninterrupted Salaries Since:January 8, 2021
- Mrs. Rebecca Lovia Martechoo Yakpo
- Position: Programme Director
- Assignment/Employee Number: 1472910
- Pay Date: September 30, 2024
- Personal Salary Amount: GHS20,721.00
- Receiving Uninterrupted Salaries Since:January 8, 2021
These three top officials have received uninterrupted salaries throughout the 31 months since the US$450 million project was abandoned. The total monthly salary payments for these officials over this period amount to a staggering GHS2,209,680.00. This figure does not include other releases to the National Cathedral Secretariat and special allowances for the Board of Trustees.
The deliberate and blatant financial loss to the state is unprecedented. This wasteful impunity continues amid widespread labor agitations and industrial actions over poor working conditions and unpaid wages. Workers who are genuinely contributing to Ghana’s development are being treated poorly by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, while a few inactive cathedral political appointees are thriving at taxpayer expense for no work done in 31 long months.
This is the height of injustice and intransigence. With this latest revelation, those who doubted Comrade Malik Basintale’s exposé on Dr. Opoku Mensah’s salaries must now have clarity and believe him. Indeed, Malik was even generous as he did not include Dr. Opoku Mensah’s collaborators.
The day of reckoning is fast approaching—there is hope for Ghana under President Mahama’s Operation Recovery All Loot (ORAL).
For God and Country.
#Ghana First.
Source : Sam Okudjeto Ablakwa / Sankofaonline.com
