The controversy surrounding the government’s ongoing recruitment into Ghana’s security services continues to dominate discussions in Parliament and among scores of Ghanaians.

Addressing the press on Thursday, March 12, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, John Ntim Fordjour, pressed the government to refund about GH¢113 million of registration fees collected from applicants who failed to progress to the medical screening stage.

Most applicants were dropped from the recruitment process, which began last year, after failing an online aptitude test organised by the government.

The online test which was confronted with a lot of challenges, according to reports, was generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

In a media engagement on Wednesday, March 11, the Interior Minister, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, revealed that the government will only employ only 5,000 individuals out of the 105,000 applicants who have made it to the last stage.

He further disclosed that about 500,000 applications were submitted by Ghanaian youth. “Are you going to allow over 400,000 people to go and do medicals when you know you have space for only 5,000? How fair are you to the people? You need to devise a method to slow down the numbers and have a reasonable figure.

“So at 65, as we speak, we still have 105,000 that have qualified for medicals when in actual sense the total number that we can now take after medicals is 5,000,” he added.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, March 10, Mr. Muntaka explained that authorities set the pass mark for the recruitment examinations at 65 to control the number of candidates progressing to the medical stage.

Reacting to the Interior Minister’s revelation, the Minority of Parliament has called the entire recruitment process a Ponzi scheme to extort from suffering youth.

The caucus has questioned why the government would accept applications from half a million persons when it intends to employ a small number.

With immediate effect, the Minority in Parliament has pressed the government to refund monies collected from the affected applicants.“Already, we have a national security threat and unemployment on our hands. You promised them jobs. You didn’t add any conditions. Then you turn around, you politically expand the age limit from twenty-five to thirty-five, signaling that there is more room and more access, more financial clearance, which was a lie.

“You knew from the very beginning you were recruiting only 5,000, and yet you did all this to lure half a million people, took their money, milked them GH¢113 million cedis and over, only to turn around yesterday, after you have knocked them out by technology and internet disruptions from the aptitude test,” he said.

The development has left scores of Ghanaians, particularly affected applicants, criticising the government. Some unsuccessful applicants say they answered the questions without engaging in examination malpractice, yet failed the test, while others who allegedly outsmarted the system have qualified.

Prior to the test, the Ministry of the Interior Ghana warned applicants against cheating, stating that the system used for the online aptitude test had been designed to detect and disqualify individuals who attempted any form of malpractice.

Some applicants have also recounted how they purchased recruitment forms for multiple security agencies, including the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana National Fire Service, and the Ghana Immigration Service, but were denied the opportunity to proceed after failing the aptitude test.

Under the recruitment guidelines, applicants who fail the aptitude test are automatically eliminated from the process, regardless of the number of forms purchased, since only one test is taken for all the security agencies. Others have also disclosed that although they initially qualified for the test, they were later disqualified after revisiting their recruitment portals.

Despite the frustrations expressed by many disqualified applicants, the Interior Minister, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, maintains that the recruitment exercise has been free and fair, unlike those organised by previous governments.

He explained that the government introduced a third-party aptitude test with a pass mark of 65% as a measure to manage the large number of applicants.

Meanwhile, some grassroots members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who were disqualified from the process have expressed disappointment in the government. They claim the administration has turned its back on them despite their role in helping the party return to power.

However, the Minister indicated that the recruitment process will not end this year. According to him, applicants who successfully pass the medical examination but are unable to secure placement this year will be considered for employment in the following year.

“I know a lot of young people may be disappointed, but they should exercise restraint as this is not going to be the first and last recruitment that the government is going to have,” the Minister noted.

Recruitment into Ghana’s security services has frequently been criticised as a process susceptible to corruption, with reports alleging that some individuals pay substantial sums of money to secure positions within agencies such as the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana National Fire Service, and the Ghana Immigration Service.