Immigration Service denies taking undue advantage of applicants
The management of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has debunked claims in a section of the media that it cashed in on the sale of electronic vouchers (e-vouchers) in the recent recruitment exercise at the expense of unemployed Ghanaians.
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Accountability
The service stated that the cost of the e-voucher was to cater for the services of the GCB Bank Limited, the software owner, and other administrative activities, including other charges for the hiring of screening venues, examination halls, ambulances, contracting sanitation companies to clean up both the examination and screening centres, provision of food and water for the screening teams and applicants across the 10 regional screening centres.
“It is not the intention of management to cash in on the process, especially as the misleading story on social media seems to portray. The process of the recruitment is not peculiar to the GIS, in fact that is the process used by all the security and educational institutions,” a statement signed and issued by the Head of Public Affairs of the GIS, Mr Michael Amoako-Atta, said.
Process
Explaining the process leading to the recruitment of candidates into the service, it said the Ministry of Finance gave clearance to the GIS late last year to recruit 500 eligible Ghanaians into the service, and the management immediately set up a committee to come out with modalities for the recruitment process.
It indicated that GCB Bank was contracted to be the sales point for the e-vouchers across all its branches nationwide.
The statement noted that the sale of application forms was not new, a practice that prevailed in previous recruitment exercises since 2012.
“The cost of this year’s application e-voucher was reduced from GH¢100 to GH¢50 as compared to the previous recruitment exercise in 2016 upon the directive of the government to all security agencies under the Ministry for the Interior,” it added.
Software
According to the statement, Trybnet, a software developer, was contracted to design an e-recruitment system that would help the GIS to conduct a free, transparent and fair exercise, and the University of Ghana Business School was also engaged to set questions for the aptitude test to ensure integrity and fairness.
“The desire of management was to give each eligible Ghanaian an equal and fair chance of applying to join the GIS and in doing so, select the best among the pool of eligible applicants.
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“At the end of the sales, a total of 83,539 vouchers were sold, out of which 47,477 applicants qualified,” the statement indicated.
Requirements
The statement said inherent in the requirements and process were restrictions to regulate and limit the number of applicants, such as age and height, “yet we had applicants who did not meet the basic requirements but went ahead to purchase the vouchers”.
“Management of the GIS, therefore, wishes to assure the general public that every money collected is well accounted for and will be judiciously used for the intended purpose,” the statement concluded.