The Minority in Parliament has called on the government to immediately suspend the ongoing recruitment exercise into Ghana’s security services, citing concerns about transparency, fairness, and the management of the process.
According to the Minority, the current recruitment exercise has generated widespread dissatisfaction among applicants and raised serious questions about how the process is being handled. The call was made by John Ntim Fordjour, the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, who described the situation as a major recruitment controversy that requires urgent action.
Speaking on the issue, Ntim Fordjour urged authorities to halt the recruitment process and initiate a bipartisan parliamentary investigation to review how the exercise is being conducted. He argued that the concerns surrounding the process are significant enough to justify a complete suspension until proper investigations are carried out.
The Minority also demanded that the government refund application fees paid by applicants, many of whom participated in the process with hopes of securing jobs in the security services. Reports indicate that over 500,000 young people applied, even though there are only about 5,000 available positions across the various security agencies.
According to the lawmakers, collecting application fees from such a large number of people when only a small fraction can be recruited raises serious concerns about fairness and transparency. They believe the process has placed unnecessary financial pressure on thousands of job seekers.
The Minority further criticised the centralised approach used for the recruitment exercise, claiming that the process should rather be handled directly by the individual security agencies such as the Police Service, Fire Service, Immigration Service, and Prisons Service, with the Interior Ministry providing oversight.
They argued that returning to a decentralised recruitment system would improve transparency and ensure that qualified applicants are selected strictly based on merit.
The ongoing recruitment exercise has attracted massive interest from young people across the country due to the high demand for employment in the security sector. However, the controversy surrounding the process continues to spark national debate about fairness, accountability, and the need for reforms in public sector recruitment.
