By Emmanuel Akli
Credible information that have been picked up by The Chronicle from multiple sources at the Ministry of Interior and that of Finance indicate that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the government would start clearing the backlog of applicants who had applied to join the various security agencies under the Interior Ministry, starting from  today, Monday, July 8, 2024.
These sources, which spoke to The Chronicle from the two ministries (Interior & Finance), revealed that financial clearance had already been given for the recruitment of the new personnel. It is, however, not known if the military, under the Ministry of Defence also have a backlog of applications they would want to clear. Â
The sources indicated that since this is a backlog the Ministry of Interior is going to work with, there would be no advertisements in the national dailies calling on qualified applicants to apply to join the security services.
A counter check conducted by The Chronicle confirmed what our multiple sources had earlier told us.
Figures intercepted by this reporter indicate that the Interior Ministry had ordered the Prisons Service to recruit 1,500 from the pool of applicants who had earlier applied to join the service. Ghana Immigration Service has also been tasked to recruit 3,000 personnel from the backlog at their disposal.
Similarly, the Ghana Police Service has also been ordered to recruit 4,000 new officers to augment their current staff strength.
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the Narcotics Control Commission have also been asked to recruit 2000 and 500 personnel respectively.
The Interior Minister, Henry Quartey, in May this year, granted interviews to the various radio stations in Accra to deny claim by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament that his outfit was doing secret recruitment.
He admitted that the recruitment would definitely be done, but that would be meant to clear the backlog of applications that had already been received by these security agencies.
So far, the Akufo-Addo government has been able to recruit more youth into the various security agencies than any government.
According to the government policy document –Summary Tracking Sheet for Employment Data, the ministry of interior through the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Fire Service and Ghana Immigration Service recruited 3,500 personnel in 2017 and another 3,500 in 2018.
There were no recruitments in 2019 – it resumed in 2020, where about 3,549 new officers were recruited.
In 2021, about 2,057 officers were recruited whilst in 2022, a total of 3,208 recruitments were carried out by the aforementioned security agencies.
This means that the four security service have since 2017 recruited  about  15,814 youth who would have otherwise be roaming  the streets looking for jobs.
The current 11,000 applicants, if they are successfully recruited,would have brought the total recruitments since 2017 to a record 26,814.
Apartment from the recruitment, the government has also supplied these security agencies with the necessary logistics – cars and communication equipment – to enable them work effectively. Accommodation, among others, has also been provided.
