A former Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Henry Kwabena Kokofu, has alleged that thousands of recruitment slots in Ghana’s security services are allocated through protocol arrangements, leaving ordinary applicants with very limited opportunities.

Speaking on the issue on Channel One TV on Thursday, March 12, 2026, Kokofu lamented what he described as the institutionalisation of corruption within the system.

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“Parliament has protocol, the list will be there. Jubilee House protocol, and others. So, if it is 5,000, I can assure you 4,000 slots will go into protocol. So, the poor child from Amakrom or Mmredane, where my cocoa farm is, will be left to compete for that 1,000 slot,” Kokofu alleged.

According to him, many young people eager to serve their country are compelled to pay money during recruitment processes despite the limited number of available slots.

“You see how we've succeeded in institutionalizing criminality, extortion from the ordinary poor people. These are poor young people of Ghana who, through no fault of theirs, are eager to serve their country in those various capacities,” he said.

He argued that although the institutions involved in the recruitment process are aware of the number of people they can absorb, they still advertise widely and allegedly encourage applicants to make payments.

“And the institutions do know how many people that can be absorbed, yet we go ahead and advertise and encourage these young poor people to pay,” he added.

Kokofu further called for an audit of the amounts allegedly paid by applicants to expose the scale of the problem.

“I want to know how much was paid by each one of them and let's do the calculations. Then we will come to understand why some of us think the system is so corrupted that it is prepared to extort monies from the poor, ordinary cocoa farmer whose son or daughter or dependent won't go into these services,” he stated.

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His comments come amid ongoing public debate about transparency and fairness in recruitment into the country’s security services.



MAG/VPO

Meanwhile, watch the story of the man behind the iconic Akwaaba frames from Ghana below: