1. The Minority Caucus in Parliament has noted with concern a banner headline news report in The Chronicle newspaper of Monday, 8th July 2024 that government is about to commence recruitment of some 11,000 personnel into the security services.
2. The report said 3,000 personnel will be recruited into the Ghana Immigration Service, 4,000 into the Ghana Police Service, 2000 into the Ghana National Fire Service, 1,500 into Ghana Prisons Service and 500 into the Narcotics Control Commission. It further said, “Since this is a backlog the Ministry of Interior is going to work with, there would be no advertisement in the national dailies calling on qualified applicants to apply to join the security services”.
3. The NDC Minority is shockingly alarmed at the said publication and takes strong exception to the government’s planned irregular recruitment into the country’s security services ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections. It would be recalled that the NDC Minority raised concerns about similar secret recruitment of NPP footsoldiers, including its thugs, into the security services as part of its election-rigging machine for the 2020 general elections. These irregular recruitments are characterized by procedural breaches and nepotism.
4. On 20th May 2024, the Minority Caucus addressed a press conference in Parliament on government’s recruitment of NPP thugs into the security services to further its rigging agenda of the 2024 elections. At that press conference, the Minority raised several concerns over the propriety of the clandestine recruitment, procedural breaches, nepotism, lack of transparency and fairness, and the implications for the peace and stability of our country ahead of the crucial general elections in December.
5. We then highlighted credible information suggesting that the ruling NPP was manipulating recruitment processes to favour its parliamentary candidates with 30 slots allocated to each of them for the various security agencies including the Police Service, the Immigration Service, the Fire Service and the Prison Service.
6. The news report that there will be no advertisement for qualified persons to apply because the government was recruiting from a backlog of previous applicants is disingenuous and untenable.
7. How does the clearing of this so-called backlog ensure that persons who might have exceeded the cut-off age for recruitment or may have developed certain health-related issues, are not recruited into the security services?
8. Since when did the government block recruitment into the security services by restricting access for only a select group in the name of a so-called backlog?
9. Why is the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government obsessed with opaqueness and the politicisation and bastardisation of strategic state institutions?
For the records, there is no backlog to be recruited into the security services.
10. This is borne out by the 7th July 2023, press release issued by the Public Affairs Directorate of the Police Headquarters, signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Grace Ansah-Akrofi, under the heading POLICE CONCLUDE ITS 2021-2022 RECRUITMENT EXERCISE
It said in the two-paragraph statement as follows
a. “The Ghana Police Service brings to an end its 2021-2022 recruitment process with an invitation to the last batch of successful candidates to report for medical screening and training.
b. We wish all the candidates well as they begin the process of becoming part of our noble institution charged with the constitutional mandate of maintaining law and order in the country”.
11. That press release exposes the dishonesty on the part of those who are forcing the false backlog narrative down the throat of the good people of Ghana. We therefore call on the Minister of the Interior to immediately advertise and subject any planned recruitment into the security services to the established and time-honoured transparent processes.
12. In the interest of transparency and accountability, the Minority insists that any attempt to recruit personnel into the security agencies under the Ministry of the Interior must be preceded by an advertisement which clearly spells out the eligibility criteria in order to allow for equal access and opportunity to all Ghanaians.
13. The NDC Minority believes that all Ghanaians regardless of gender, tribe, political lineage, religion or creed deserve a fair and equal opportunity as far as employment into state institutions is concerned.
14. The integrity of our security services and the trust of the people of Ghana in our institutions depend on our collective commitment to transparency and fairness, especially in the recruitment into the security sservice.
- 15. The Minister of the Interior must desist from this opaque and irregular recruitment with barely six months to the crucial 2024 general elections. It is important to restore the integrity, as well as the confidence and trust of Ghanaians in our security services. Any recruitment into the security services must therefore be done through a transparent, fair and just process in order to safeguard the peace and stability of our democracy.
