{"id":3200,"date":"2025-08-15T10:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=3200"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:25:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:25:03","slug":"ghana-government-considering-complete-halt-of-adjayes-national-cathedral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/ghana-government-considering-complete-halt-of-adjayes-national-cathedral\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana government considering “complete halt” of Adjaye’s national cathedral"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"National<\/div>\n

Ghana president John Dramani Mahama has taken steps towards abandoning the Adjaye Associates<\/a>-designed National Cathedral in Accra<\/a> following an investigation into the finances of the controversial project.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president’s office announced that it has begun the process of ending the current contracts connected to the cathedral and will launch a further “forensic audit” that may lead to the project being halted entirely.<\/p>\n

“The Attorney General and Minister for Justice has been tasked with taking legal steps to lawfully terminate the contract for the National Cathedral project, a measure aimed at ‘preventing further costs and losses to the state’,” it said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The minister affirmed that ‘decisive action will be taken regarding any impropriety determined and the future of the project itself’ once the forensic audit is complete,” it continued. “This signals a potential re-evaluation or complete halt of the controversial project.”<\/p>\n

\"National
Adjaye Associates designed the controversial National Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commissioned in 2018 by former president Nana Akufo-Addo, the cathedral project has become controversial due to its costs and accusations that Adjaye Assoiciates was\u00a0illegally hired\u00a0to design the building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the BBC<\/a> around $58 million of taxpayer’s money has already been spent on the $400 million cathedral despite construction not starting.<\/p>\n

The decision to consider terminating the project was based on an audit<\/a> by the accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche<\/a>, which the current president commissioned.<\/p>\n

According to the president’s office, the audit revealed “a litany of financial irregularities, procurement breaches, and a ‘general lack of due process’.”<\/p>\n

Report “makes clear that there is no discrepancy in payments”<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the audit noted irregularities, it does not state that any wrongdoing has occurred.<\/p>\n

The audit initially noted a discrepancy in the fees the president’s office reported to have paid the design team and the fees Adjaye Associates reported to have received.<\/p>\n

“The audit found troubling variances in consultancy fees paid to Sir David Adjaye & Associates Ltd, with the Office of the President confirming GHS 113,040,564.86 [$10.6 million] while the firm claimed GHS 117,972,656.00 [$11.2 million] \u2013 an unexplained difference of GHS 4,932,091.14 [$463,000],” said a statement from the president’s office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, after seeking clarification and carrying out a “detailed review”, Deloitte & Touche confirmed that both parties agreed that fees of GHS 117,972,656.00 [$11.2 million] had been paid as part of the contract.<\/p>\n

“The Deloitte audit for the National Cathedral of Ghana makes clear that there is no discrepancy in payments made to [studio founder] David Adjaye or Adjaye Associates,” said a spokesperson for Adjaye Associates.<\/p>\n

“All funds dispensed were within the scope of the contract and there has been no misallocation of any amount,” they continued. “These are the facts and can be verified by a full reading of the statement issued by the government of Ghana on 18 July 2025.”<\/p>\n

“All additional work was covered by variations to the original contract”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The audit also stated that Adjaye Associates had received fees of GHS 15,738,750 ($1.48 million) before an “agreement was officially signed”.<\/p>\n

It also noted that fees of $12,430,221 had been billed by Adjaye Associates for additional work not included within the initial contract.<\/p>\n

“We can confirm that all additional work was covered by variations to the original contract (made in 2019) and these addendums were all signed-off accordingly before works begun,” said a spokesperson for Adjaye Associates.<\/p>\n

According to the audit, Adjaye Associates have been paid $15.7 million for the project with $7.9 million of fees outstanding.<\/p>\n

Project currently on hold<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planned for a site near Ghana’s parliament in Accra, the landmark project would have a concave roof topping a 5,000-seat auditorium. It would also contain a series of chapels, a baptistery, a music school, an art gallery and Africa’s first bible museum.<\/p>\n

The building site is currently vacant with construction work yet to commence, following the demolition of state buildings, judges’ homes and buildings for financial practices.<\/p>\n

Adjaye Associates was dropped from a number of projects in 2023, including\u00a0the Africa Institute in Sharjah<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool<\/a>, after\u00a0three former employees accused studio founder David Adjaye of sexual misconduct<\/a>. Adjaye denies the allegations.<\/p>\n

The post Ghana government considering “complete halt” of Adjaye’s national cathedral<\/a> appeared first on Dezeen<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghana president John Dramani Mahama has taken steps towards abandoning the Adjaye Associates-designed National Cathedral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3205,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions\/3205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}