Call for transparency in security service recruitment apt!

 THE call by security analysts for transparency and professionalism in the selection of personnel into the various security services in the country is apt and one to be treated with all seriousness.

Of late, there have been hulla­baloo about recruitment into the security services regarding the hi­jack of the process by politicians.

For instance, in May this year, the Minority in Parliament alleged that the government had adopted a scheme in which each New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamen­tary candidate had been offered 30 slots for enlistment into the various security services in the country.

Even though public agencies or organisations like the National Disaster Management Organi­sation (NADMO) and National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) play roles that contrib­ute to the social stability and security of the country, at the mention of security services, what readily come to the mind of the ordinary Ghanaian include Ghana Police Service (GPS), Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), and Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

The rest are Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Ghana Prisons Service (GPS), Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), and Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

These are sources of employ­ment that should be open to all eligible Ghanaians, especially the youth, to apply for enlistment.

Therefore, if any person(s), group(s) and organisation(s) arrogate to themselves the power and authority to enlist groups of people, then there is marginalisa­tion and unfairness somewhere, which does not augur well for national cohesion and unity.

In fact, even before the Minori­ty in Parliament cried foul follow­ing which the Majority debunked the allegation, rumours were rife that some people in government and others with some kind of clout were either collecting bribes personally or had appointed assigns who were collecting them from people desperate in securing placements in the various security services.

The reality is the fact that there are some people who are desperate in becoming security personnel and so allegedly pay bribes to one agent or a number of them to get them placements in any security service whose doors get open.

Emanating from this state of affairs is also the fact that some applicants have been swindled.

Even though the Ghanaian Times is not giving credence to the rumours, it cannot dismiss them outright

and so calls for investigations into them, while the recruitment process is made to be character­ised by the kind of transparency the security experts are calling for and which call is shared by the general public.

The truth is that if fraudu­lence associated with recruitment into the security services is not eliminated, there is the likelihood that criminals (including traitors) and physically-unfit persons can be enlisted and that can affect the integrity, fitness and even the safety of the services and the country.

Besides, there can be the con­centration of a particular groups of persons from certain tribes, political parties or otherwise, which can undermine the cohe­sion and unity of the services and give impetus to discrimination.

But while the Ghanaian Times hopes the fraudulence would be eliminated, it believes it is a good thing the government does not want new application forms to be sold to the public, but wishes to know how the 2021 applicants being considered now would be treated.