Atta Mills Library contractor threatens legal action

The contractor who worked on the Atta Mills Presidential Library has threatened to take legal action to enable him to take over the facility if his outstanding certificate of work is not honoured by the close of this month.

In an interview  last Saturday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mamphey Developers Limited, Mr Joseph Koio Mamphey, said: “If the government wants to drag its feet, we will go to court and seek legal mandate to run the facility and recoup our money.”

He said the company had an outstanding certificate of work which was prepared by the Architectural Engineering Services Limited (AESL) in December 2016 but which had not been honoured.

Mr Mamphey, however, declaimed to give details of how much the company was owed and the total cost of the project.

“We will seize the facility and use it for the intended purpose to recoup the substantial amount owed us. We want to leave a legacy for generations yet unborn,” he said.

No funds

Commenting on the project, the Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan, said the government would not release funds to support the library because the facility was purely a private enterprise to immortalise the late President Mills.

He said because the project was a private initiative, just like President Kufuor and the President Rawlings foundations, no government funds would be released to run it.

But the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Professor Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said he had had a discussion with the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who had agreed that there must be a budget line for the edifice.

Library closed down

Meanwhile, the library has been closed down for lack of funds to run it.

Currently, the UCC, which is responsible for the administration of the library, has not been able to pay the water and electricity bills of the facility.

To make matters worse, the contractor who worked on the project is said to have locked up the place and taken the keys away, denying the university access to the two-storey building situated opposite the Cape Coast Castle.

When the Daily Graphic visited the imposing facility, the huge gate at the entrance had been shut, with only one security man at post.

Due to its proximity to the sea, portions of the facility had started rusting.