National Cathedral Secretariat denies MP’s claims

The National Cathedral Secretariat has refuted allegations of impropriety levelled against it by the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, insisting that his claims indict the United States’ legal and regulatory environment.

The secretariat said all the allegations made by the MP in a series of Facebook posts were false.

Mr Ablakwa, who is also the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has made allegations that question the integrity of the National Cathedral of Ghana and the Bible Museum Foundation Incorporated, USA, in terms of the registration processes and documentation in the US; that the American consultant Cary Summers’ office was traced to a warehouse; and that a false identity and the social security number of a person was used to apply for tax exemption for the foundation.

Conference

At a news conference in Accra last Friday, the Executive Director of the National Cathedral of Ghana, Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah, said the secretariat was implementing the project with integrity and accountability.

“All allegations made are false.

There is no criminality in the National Cathedral project; we are implementing the project with integrity and accountability in and outside Ghana,” he said.

He said the foundation was a special-purpose vehicle created for fundraising needs of the project in the USA.

He also indicated that the foundation had already filed 2021 tax returns, adding that the tax returns for 2022 would be submitted on May 15, 2023.

Dr Opoku-Mensah said while Parliament had oversight responsibility, its duty should be done in Parliament or through statutory bodies established for the purpose.

He indicated that the accusations were affecting fundraising activities in Ghana and the US.

“We need some quietness to be able to raise the resources to finish the work,” he said.

National Cathedral Foundation

A New York-based Ghanaian attorney, Eric Okyere Darko, who is one of the two trustees serving the country as volunteers for the foundation, explained that the foundation used a service called Corporate Services Company to do the registration of the National Cathedral.

He explained that the Corporate Services Company was a registered company whose duty was to assist in registering and serving as agents for the companies, resulting in the agent’s address being listed on the registration document.

Mr Okyere Darko also explained that the clergymen were not part of the registration documentation because they were not permanent residents or citizens of the US to be able to do the registration.

Social security

On the allegation involving the social security number of the foundation, Mr Okyere Darko said the employee identification number assigned to the foundation was issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the US.

He explained that the ID number assigned to the foundation was nine figures, but the format written for all companies started with two digits followed by a hyphen and seven digits.

He added that the social security number for a person in the US was also nine digits, but that it started with three digits separated by a hyphen, two digits, separated by another hyphen followed by five numbers.

He said the hyphen was crucial in distinguishing a corporate body from an individual.

“The employee ID number, which is also called the Tax ID number for the National Cathedral Foundation is 86-3859197.

“Mr Okudzeto put this number in a different format, which is 863-85-9197 that automatically pulls an individual’s social security number instead of a company’s social security number,” he said.