Group petitions CHRAJ to probe GIS, other recruitment scams

A Social Advocacy Group, Citizens Forum, has petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) over the recent recruitment brouhaha in the Ghana Immigration Service and the Civil Service of Ghana.

The group is asking the Commission to among other things, investigate and make pronouncements on the propriety of financial processes and administrative procedures relative to the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921) and the Financial Administration Regulation 2004 (LI 1802).

According to the petitioners, “the broader aim of their action is intended to secure the correct procedure to guide all Public Sector agencies in future recruitment processes and to stop the long-age practice where monies are syphoned from vulnerable, unemployed youths by Public Sector agencies under the guise of such recruitment.”

It may be recalled that in November 2017, the Ghana Immigration Service advertised for prospective applicants who wanted to be enlisted into the Service to purchase application vouchers at a cost of GHc50 and fulfil other requirements.

According to the Service, 84,360 people applied and a total amount of GHc4,218,000 was realized from the sale of forms.

Similarly, the Civil Service engaged in a recruitment process with an aptitude test for applicants on January 4, 2018 at the Civil Service Training School, the St. Thomas Aquinas School both at Cantonment and WAEC Hall at Ridge.

A total of 3,000 applicants each paid an initial amount of GHc10 and an extra fee of GHc50 amounting to some GHc180,000.

The petition added that “it is even more frightening when one sits to take stock of the monies being accrued unfairly as a result of these processes. A simple computation of the numbers and figures from recent recruitment exercises as sourced from the Speech of the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he met the Press recently, gives the following estimates;

Ghana Immigration Service- 84,360 applicants with an amount of GHc4, 218,000 realized.

Ghana Revenue Authority- 5, 9991 applicants with an amount of GHc2, 999,550 realized.

Civil Service- 3000 applicants with an amount of GHc180, 000 realized.

Armed Forces-26,032 applicants with an amount of GHc1, 301,600 realized.

“A total number of 332,117 unemployed youths were at the receiving end of this “extortion’ with a total amount of GHc16, 675,850 realized for these agencies with a base rate of GHc50 per applicant.

“It is the considered opinion of the group that the conduct of these Services and many other Public Institutions in respect of these recruitment exercises is insensitive and capricious and constitutes an avenue to collect monies from already traumatized, unemployed Ghanaian youth who are vulnerable and increasingly losing hope in the Ghanaian project.”