Recruitment And Selection Processes In The Ghana Police Service - A Looming Credibility Crisis

Good morning, is a long time I have had my say here on matters relating to our dear service - the Ghana Police Service.

I hope everybody is fine.
The last time I checked, we were supposed to be a "service with integrity" but unfortunately our actions and inactions most of the time are propagating and promoting the very opposite of a "service with integrity"

Today, I have decided to pass by briefly to talk about one or two developing issues coming out of our training depots which I find very appalling and worrying to put it mildly.

Sometimes I wonder why we create so much bad press for ourselves. These actions are making life on the streets very unbearable for many innocent ordinary policemen who have to bare the brunt of the general public whenever these administrative excesses rare their ugly heads.

We are reading and seeing pictures of a purported dismissal of some category of recruits from police depots across the country.

Before I proceed, please indulge me to ask this rhetorical question "Is it a reality check time for these recruits or mere political vendetta?"

Or is it a payback time for the political oligarchs?

If indeed, the news about the purported dismissal and the signal that detailed the qualifications and category of these recruits to be dismissed is true, then someone or some people at the helm of affairs at the HR department at the headquarters ought to be answering some questions just like COP Patrick Timbillah was made to answer which eventually according to what we have heard in the news has resulted in his dismissal from the service albeit on a purported retirement circa 2016 thereabout.

The reported development is most likely going to be the last nail that will close the coffin on the last draw of integrity left for us as service as far as recruitment is concerned.

I am particularly embarrassed as a student of Human Resource Management and an avid admirer cum supporter of fair equitable administrative and management practices to learn that all the recruitment and selection processes we engaged to get these recruits to report to training at the various depots across the length and breadth of this country were flawed and nothing but a carefully orchestrated scandalous charade whereby unqualified applicants were selected at the expense of qualified ones.

It saddens my heart as a young police officer that we are gradually through these incessant lapses in our recruitment and selection processes plunging our service - the Ghana Police Service into an irreversible identify cum serious integrity crisis coupled with its attendant consequences.

I am worried as a young officer because the future of this service is largely dependent on the decisions, actions and inactions of those who are in charge today.

I shudder to think that very soon, the public will not take us serious when we identify vacancies and announcements are made in the media detailing the need for us to recruit and which qualified candidates to recruit into the service.

Our credibility to stage a fair recruitment and selection process has over the last few years been dealt a serious blow due to the fact that people now believe that before the announcements are made for recruitment, the selection process has long completed and the candidates known to those who matter.

And why not, there are also those who believe either wrongly or rightly that our recruitment and selection processes now are nothing but a conduit for milking the unsuspecting poor desperate unemployed Ghanaian youth dry.

This is a widely held view both within and without the service in recent and if we are not careful and these hungry poor youth become angry one day, we will not be able to contain their anger.

When that day comes the venom they will spew at us will be more than that of a venomous viper.

If this cannot be said to be creating a serious credibility crisis, then I wonder what will.

When we make these announcements in the future again, people will be tempted to impugn all kinds of motifs to our actions no matter how genuine they may be. They will not be wrong if they ignore us on the basis that we are only creating a make believe situation to collect money from unsuspecting applicants by pretending to be selling application forms and cards at the banks.

They will not be wrong if they accuse us that we want to "dupe them" of their hard earned monies and go and select candidates who are far less qualified in terms of academic qualifications and requirements.

I don't know why we have made otherwise simple administrative procedures very cumbersome and laced with some political coloration and undertones making things difficult.

I don't understand why the constitution will say all of us shall be treated equally before the law but we allow political parties and politicians to smuggle into our recruitment and selection processes an alien political language ie protocol which is entirely unknown to the constitution of the Republic and rope it around our necks like an albatross waiting to devour our throats.

As far as I know as an HR student, recruitment which in the past was called hiring is a core human resource function that refers to the overall processes of attracting (often through adverts and announcements), selecting and appointing suitable candidates for jobs within an organisation.

So consider that we as a service undertook a comprehensive recruitment and selection process ( perceived or real) that got these guys into training and has ended in the sacking of some affected trainees because they did not meet the enlistment requirements to be trained as police officers.

If the above is true, then someone has to be answering why these affected individuals got into the training schools without the required certificates.

Really, it does appear that we painted a good picture by the day and did the hatchet job of the political class by night.

We have been here too many times because we have shamefully thrown professionalism to the dogs and embraced hook line and sinker the dictates of a blood thirsty political elites who will do anything for power at the expense of the ordinary citizen.

Why should a service like our always yield to the political pondering of politicians to musturbate the recruitment and selection processes into the service to suit their whims and caprices only to suffer the penalties for it?

Can we salvage the situation and restore our credibility in the eyes of the Ghanaian people?

I believe we can if together we make a pledge to do the right things no matter the political dispensation that is in place. We must at all times strive to work as professionals and not be seen as working for politicians and political parties.

Abdul Hanan Mohammed EL-Saeed
Chiraa Police Station
Sunyani District/BA
0244087295