10,000 service personnel stranded

Close to 10,000 university graduates in the Accra zone, who were rejected by institutions following their postings to undertake their mandatory national service are said to be stranded as the National Service Secretariat (NSS) is yet to repost them, sources at the Greater Accra Regional NSS have hinted Today.

As a result, the frustrated students continue to besiege the regional office of NSS for reposting but all to no avail, as majority of them have still not been placed, the sources added.

It would be recalled that around July this year, the NSS started posting tertiary school graduates to both public and private institutions to undertake their national service for the 2015/2016 mandatory service year.

However, when some of them reported at their centres early September, the beneficiary institutions rejected them, citing among other reasons the non-availability of space to absorb all of them.

Others were refused because they did not have the needed set of skills due to the kind of courses they pursued in school.

Almost a month later the NSS has been unable to repost the students. And this development, Today learnt, was causing anxiety among the graduates with some contemplating giving up on doing the service this year.

Others continue to flock to NSS office hoping to receive good news, a situation they contend, was putting a lot of strain on their scanty finances as they bear the cost of transporting themselves to and from home to NSS secretariats.

Speaking to Today on Monday at the regional NSS secretariat, some of the affected students said they have been reposted and had gone there to register whiles others were left disappointed as their posting had still not come.

“We were posted to SSNIT but were told there was no vacancy. That is why we are here” for reposting two female graduates of University of Ghana told this paper.

“We have been chasing them for reposting, but anytime we come they tell us to go and come again. They keep tossing us about,” a disappointed student lamented. Another student disclosed that he had to mount pressure on NSS officials, and this strategy proved helpful as the officials quickly got him a place.

“I had to be on their neck before my reposting came,” the student added.

Meanwhile, an NSS official who spoke on condition of anonymity blamed the NSS head office for the delay in reposting the students.

The officer said all they do is to process the documents and forward them to the head office.

“So whether the posting list comes early or not, it depends on the head office,” the NSS officer added.

The NSS official continued and stated that students are supposed to be checking online every time to know whether the postings are out instead of coming to the regional secretariat.

According to the NSS officer, whenever the posting list was ready it was published online.

Greater Accra churns out the largest number of tertiary school graduates each year, due to the concentration of several universities and professional institutions in the region.

This, our sources indicated, accounted for the huge number of rejected service personnel.

Speaking to Today via telephone yesterday, Director of Public Relations, Ghana National Service Scheme, Mr. Ambrose Entsiwah Jr., admitted there were some personnel who the NSS was trying to repost but disputed the 10,000 figure for the Greater Accra region alone.

According to him, numbers awaiting re-posting was far less than 10,000 as our sources alleged.

He, however, did not give any figure since he did not readily have them.

But he assured that authorities at NSS were doing everything possible to ensure all affected personnel were reposted by the end of October 2015.

Mr. Ambrose Entsiwah Jr., explained that the delay in reassigning service personnel has come about because authorities were taking their time to identify vacancies in various institutions before posting them.

He also stated that institutions were still making requests and all these issues have to be sorted out properly before postings can be done to avoid another case of rejection, but was quick to add that reposting was still ongoing.

When asked whether service personnel who reported to their centres but were rejected through no fault of theirs would receive their September allowances, Mr. Ambrose Entsiwah said the decision to pay or otherwise lied with the board of the NSS which determines these matters.

About 96,000 graduates of tertiary institutions are undertaking their mandatory national service this year.