'No fresh applicants until existing pool is exhausted’ – Muntaka on security service recruitment 

The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed, has announced that the government will not open recruitment portals for fresh applicants into the security services next year until previously successful applicants have been recruited.

He said the government would continue recruiting from the pool of applicants who had completed the required screening and medical examinations but could not be admitted because of limited spaces and financial constraints.

The minister made this known when he appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, October 20, assuring affected applicants that they would be considered in subsequent recruitment phases without having to repeat the entire application process.

“Next year, there will be no new applicant. We are not going to open the portal based on the President’s instruction. We are not going to open a portal for new fresh applicants,” he said.

The Minister explained that the recruitment exercise had been staggered because the government could not absorb all qualified applicants at once, despite the staffing needs of the security agencies.

He cited the Ghana Police Service as an example, saying the service required between 70,000 and 80,000 officers to operate effectively but currently had about 50,000.

The minister said the first phase of recruitment had clearance to admit 10,000 people, with subsequent batches expected to be drawn from the existing pool of successful applicants.

He added that some applicants might be required to undergo fresh medical examinations if their previous results were more than six months or a year old.

“We will keep picking from the list until we exhaust it before another application will be allowed,” he assured the applicants.