The Ashanti Regional Library is charging 50p per person as entry fee for patrons who use the adult reference section of the library.
This is contrary to the Ghana Library Authority (GLA) Act (327), which states, among others, that a public library should be maintained by public funds (mostly income tax money), and no direct charge should be made to anyone for its services to fulfil its purposes, must be readily accessible, and its doors open for free and equal use by all members of the community regardless of race, colour, nationality, age, sex, religion, language, status or educational attainment.”
When The Finder contacted the regional head of the Ashanti library, Madam Elizabeth Arthur, about this apparent illegality, she said that all the regional heads met and took that decision.
However, the question is whether those regional heads have the authority to take a decision on a public institution without recourse to the laws of the country.
What makes the case more worrying is the issue of accountability. Monies are collected without issuing any receipt.
When Madam Elizabeth was challenged by the paper on the legality of their action, she only lamented that they had to come take that action because funds allocated to the regional libraries is so scanty that not much can be done with it.
She stated that the library received a paltry sum of GH₵3,000 since 2014 up to date.
The conditions at the Ashanti library are nothing but an embarrassment to the Garden City.
So bad is the situation that the electricity supply to the library has been disconnected since February 2015.
The most worrying thing is that the latest reference almanac is the 1993 edition.
The latest Guinness Book of Records available is the 2007 version. This leaves one to wonder whether it is a library or an archive.
Sources close to the managers of the library told The Finder that books have been allocated to the library but have been sitting in Accra for the past two years because no fuel has been provided to transport the books to Kumasi.
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