We’re not secretly recruiting, just clearing 30,000 backlog of 2018 – Prisons

The Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) has denied claims by the Minority in Parliament that it has secretly recruited cronies of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Apart from the Prisons Service, the Minority on Wednesday, 30 October 2019, also alleged that even though in 2019, there has been no advertisement whatsoever for recruitment into the Police Service and no applications have been received or processed in the e-recruitment portal of the Police Service which can be accessed online, certain individuals have been invited and are being taken through medical screening for purposes of getting them recruited.

“The story is not any different with the Prisons and Immigration Services. Both Services, like the Police, have not advertised for recruitment in 2019. In the particular case of the Immigration Service, we are reliably informed that they have secretly invited mainly cronies of the NPP and taken them through screening and medical examination at the Prisons Training School for recruitment. In all, the Immigration Service is hoping to secretly recruit 700 junior officers and 150 senior officers,” the Minority said in a statement signed by Mr James Agalga, MP, Builsa North and Ranking Member, Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament.

Reacting to this claim, the Prisons Service administration said the allegation of its involvement in the so-called secret recruitment is “false”.

The Prisons Service, in a statement signed by Superintendent Courage Atsem, Chief Public Relations Officer and copied to ClassFMonline.com explained that: “The service is, indeed, undertaking a screening exercise for recruitment. It must, however, be stated unequivocally that this current exercise is a continuation of the recruitment exercise that began in the year 2018”.

“It is also important to state that the Service has so far trained three batches of recruits from applications received last year and is currently taking the last batch of qualified applicants through the final screening process for their eventual training to begin soon.

“It is in view of the above that the Prisons Administration deemed it expedient to limit the current recruitment exercise to the backlog of the over 30,000 qualified applicants.”

The Prisons Administration said, “it is committed, at all times, to remain fair, transparent and professional in all its operations and will never do anything that has the tendency to compromise national security and public safety”.