The “Whom You Know Network” In Employment Circles Beware!

Part 1

Introduction

If there is any corrupt practice in our dear country that has not received much

attention as compared with bribery, smuggling etc., then it is the “whom you

know network” (WYKN). It is a corrupt practice that has its own system or

network, language and or terminologies. In my opinion, it is the bane of all

corrupt activities. As the phrase or name suggests, you must know or be known by

someone who knows another individual to aid you to secure a favour. It is the

most common but dubious channel to secure employment andor services in the

country lately as against the competitive bidding process of obtaining

particularly employment. It occurs in every society and established institutions

with varying levels of immensity.

The origin of this practice cannot be traced and as such can not be limited to

one group of people, race, colour, creed etc. However it can be attributed to

the abuse of privileges accorded to officialdom and some highly placed

individuals in the society; in that, as an example, in recruiting applicants for

the Army, there is a quota of applicants that must be considered with or without

merit from some top officials in Government and other distinguished individuals

in Society. By this practice those below the rank and file of the Institution

are encouraged by the situation and so adopt this kind of way to get cronies

mostly without the requisite qualifications to obtain certain favours and or

jobs. When we fail to be good examples we should be sure that we gave no example

or have been bad examples to others.

Favours such as employment appointments, transfers, promotion, examination

malpractices, twisted verdict in the Court, preparation of legitimate land

documents to undeserved owners, Passports, Licenses, etc. The WYKN has various

outlooks since it is orchestrated under the whims of ethnic or tribal,

religious, political and social affiliations.

Some prefer to call it “links”, “connections” “networking” “Movements” etc.

Those at the helm of this practice are given certain titles depending on the

gravity of work involved in what one is to “link” the other to. So you hear

titles such as “Nana”, “Osagifo”, “Amega”, “Nyebro”, “Orgboro” or “Orgborlor”

“Borsu” etc, sometimes the names or nicknames of the most notorious criminals in

the society were given to them.

You can take a good look at the unarmed and harmless “Atta Ayis”, “Tagors”,

“Kombians” etc., and you have extremely little or no reason to trust them. As

for the appellations, the least said the better. If you were the type who often

come clean on your “deals” or left no traces you got the title “Champion”,

“Killer”, “Chief” “General” or “Captain”.

The WYKN creates opportunities for other corrupt practices because the elements

in the network are bribed or demanded the satisfaction of certain conditions

mostly in the payment of money than in kind. As we begin to hear and see the

flourishing activities of homosexuals, the focus on satisfying conditions in

kind which mostly characterized women using their “bottom power”, would also

culminate into the engagement of young men in areas such as the above before the

“deal” is completed. This reminds me of the proverbial “fa woto begye Gulf”.

Sometimes the task of the “Champion” was to get a legitimate occupant or

official in a particular social Institution out so as to make way for another;

but that is to the extreme. Ghana’s cheap labour situation is a refreshing

factor that fertilizes and grows the network; because, it (WYKN) left only two

options for the applicant both to accept and take the conditions or leave them,

therefore to succumb to the conditions,becomesa hard or simple decision for

whoever was in dire need of employment and or service.

When people are over burned, frustrated and depressed including avaricious

people, they fall to all sorts of schemes and vices. The unnecessary pressure

that some families exert on their unemployed youth and the insatiable desire for

riches and desire to eschew proper procedure and make way for gentle and

pleasurable living sometimes underpin this vice.

Today, most People believe that to secure some appointments one could just have

to pay or satisfy certain nefarious conditions. Remember, not every individual

would accept a bribe or accept any token for a good deed done; but in the (WYKN)

money is a sine qua non.

The (WYKN) from my experience can be defined as: an unacceptable act of

introducing an individual or group of individuals under various guises to

another individual and or a number of individuals to earn, secure, procure,

obtain and or gain an undeserved attention, advantage, engagement or service

after satisfying certain parochial conditions. In this network, there are the

agents, the facilitators and beneficiaries.

The introduction could be done formally (thus by a letter) or by the orthodox

way of conveying the individual(s)-beneficiary by the hand to the office of the

facilitator or to the home. Sometimes it is done on the telephone or cell phone

and via the internet.

Partaking in this often unavoidable practice is extremely expensive when the

facilitator would work at a cost. It is a prevailing practice that has incurred

the displeasure of the custodians of good morals, values and virtues in the

society.

The nature of this phenomenon in the area of employment begins like this: when

there is a vacancy, as may be published in the papers or relayed by the agent,

the Personnel or Human Resource Manager together with the final authority

responsible for employment knows what conditions to present as per any applicant

having been introduced; so as the applicant follows the normal procedure of

submitting an application for the job included with his/her relevant documents

which may or may not satisfy the Institutional requirements, if the applicant

succumbed to the tenets of the agents or facilitators in the WYKN, either the

applicant is made to produce an additional copy of his/her documents, or the

earlier submitted one was tagged or separated from the lot for “special

treatment.” Behind the scenes after the above, the agents continued to impress

upon the applicant to fully satisfy the conditions if he/she had not done that.

Interestingly, the content of the conditions vary as regards the sexes of the

applicants. Males are made to pay huge sums of monies before

consideration.Sometimes for a specified period of time, the successful applicant

would have to share his/her salary or wages with the facilitator(s). The females

regrettably sometimes, do not only pay monies as the males do but per the

conditions would have to engage the lecherous facilitator(s) sexually, whose

condition strategically comes up when the “deal” is 99% done. Unfortunately

sometimes the females do not even secure the appointment but pay with their

bodies. The trend is changing with the influx of homosexuals. Undoubtedly, the

question is if the males are paying with their bodies?

Mostly, it constitutes facilitators numbering from three (3) to five (5) or more

especially when there is a panel to conduct an interview for those short listed.

What is worrying about this practice is that even if you met the needed

Institutional requirements you were made to honour the hard conditions otherwise

the vacant position was given to another applicant who was ready to act

accordingly. watch out for part 2

By: Jairzmical Carbonation

jairzmical@yahoo.co.uk