Companies cannot choose service personnel – NSS

The National Service Secretariat (NSS) has stated that it was illegal for companies to request for their favourite persons to be posted to serve as national service personnel in their establishments.

Nana Asare Asante, Greater Accra Regional Administrator for the NSS, in a meeting with service personnel in the Tema Metropolis, said there was no legal backing for such a practice.

Nana Asante debunked personnel’s claim that organisations choose students to be posted to their companies saying that “it is strictly against service policies”.

He indicated that there would be an abuse of the system if companies were generally allowed to decide who they wanted to serve as national service personnel in their organisations.

He, however, explained that companies who want to do that under special circumstances would have to seek an approval from the Executive Director of the NSS and justify the need for their request to be granted.

Nana Asante stated that the NSS always advertised in the dailies for companies to submit their request based on the number of personnel per course they needed to serve in their companies.

Such companies who make use of service personnel are also expected to send information on the responsibilities to be assigned the personnel and who they would report to.

He said even though there were currently over 26,000 service personnel serving in both public and private institutions in the Greater Accra Region, vacancies still existed to take care of any personnel who might be released from their organisations for any reason.

Mr Samuel Ayim Ankomah, Tema Metropolitan NSS Director, said a total of 2,458 personnel were working in various sectors in the Tema Metropolis.

Mr Ankomah commended the personnel for comporting themselves at their various stations as according to him, his outfit was getting good reports about them from their organisations.

He urged them to be responsible and take advantage of the postings to acquire practical training to prepare them for the job market.

Meanwhile, service personnel in the Tema Metropolis have elected Mr Isaac Kofi Kportsu, Mr Isaac Tagoe, Ms Evelyn Amoo, and Mr Duke Asamoah, as the President, Financial Secretary, Secretary and Organizing Secretary in that order for the 2014-2015 National Service Personnel Association (NASPA).