MP Slams Security Services Over Sale Of Recruitment Forms

Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has called for the immediate halting of the sale of recruitment forms of the various security agencies, such as the Police Service, Armed Forces and the Immigration Services.

His call comes on the back of the sale of 84,637 e-vouchers for the recruitment of personnel into the Ghana Immigration Service, priced at GHc 50, of which 47,477 were shortlisted for the second phase of the selection process, but only 500 of them will be selected nationwide.

The development has left a section of the public incensed over what they described as raw deal meted out to the applicants by the Immigration Service.

The Service had received a lot of backlash from Ghanaians when it was estimated that GIS bagged some GHc 4,231,850 from the sale of its forms.

But the Ghana Immigration Service had defended its decision to sell e-voucher to over 84,000 youth when the service planned to recruit only 500 people.

Head of Public Affairs at the service, Supt. Michael Amoako-Atta, said they did no wrong, and that the money generated will be put to good use.

“We were using facilities of GCB and they are going to charge us and it is going to come from this GHc50. Every phase of the process, like today, we have rented the venues across the country and we are paying monies for it. We are paying for logistics, ambulances; we are also going to pay for the marking of scripts. We are going to pay for the software we are using and other things along the line. Currently, I don’t know the percentage that will be coming to GIS. We might even delve into our own IGF until the process is over. We have to also pay for cleaning of the centres as well,” he added.

However, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who is also a former Deputy Education Minister speaking on Joy FM at the weekend stressed that there was no justification for the sale of the forms.

“I think that we should stop selling forms, they don’t need to pay and I think we should be leading a campaign for a refund of monies paid by the applicants. Let’s automate these systems so that you go online, you fill a form and then you don’t need to pay anything. We’re in a modern era”, he said.