National Cathedral Contract Amount Negotiated To US$400 Million – Bright Simons Revealed

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The government of Ghana has reportedly renegotiated contract sums on the National Cathedral project to US$400 million.

According to Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, the renegotiated figures have been necessitated as a result of the lack of sync between the construction company, Rizzani de Eccher, and the architects, Adjaye and Associates.

The latest figure of the project cost represents a 300% increase from the initial figure of US$100 million that was communicated by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in November 2019.

“A few months ago, the Govt of Ghana quietly renegotiated contract sums on the National Cathedral to a whopping $400 MILLION after significant confusion & rancour over earlier design work btwn (between) builders G. Eccher & architects, Adjaye Associates,” Simons wrote in a June 24 tweet.

The tweet was accompanied by an extract in which the project contractor is addressing some of their recent projects. It read as follows:

Question: What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Response: Our legal team has just been able to finalize a $400m contract for the project of a Cathedral in Ghana. We secured a 200m euro deal for the new headquarter of the European Investment Bank in Luxemburg. The Rizzani de Eccher legal team has also been involved in the final arbitration hearing against a state of the Gulf for a total of $300m.

Simons added in a follow-up tweet: “The public watches in bewilderment as a project initially cost at $100m now tops $400m for construction alone (4x overrun).

“Costs for ops & maintenance not accounted for. The costs of the collection for the Bible Museum are unknown. Shall we say $700m then?” he quizzed.

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