The Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, has disclosed that over 6,000 applicants were disqualified during the medical screening stage of the ongoing security services recruitment.
Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak detailed that over 100,000 applicants underwent medical examinations as part of the recruitment process.
According to the Interior Minister, the Security Service medical process was expanded beyond the usual physical and laboratory checks.
He disclosed that the test included drug testing and mental health assessments.
The Interior Minister detailed that more than 4,000 applicants failed the drug tests, while about 2,000 others were disqualified on mental health grounds.
Speaking in an interview on Pan African TV on Saturday, May 23, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak disclosed, “We have over 100,000 people who went through the medicals. Because of the large numbers, and because of what we have observed within the services.
We introduced additional checks, including mental health assessments and drug tests. Interestingly, over 4,000 people failed the drug test, and we have over 2,000 who also failed due to mental health conditions,” he said.
In related news, President John Dramani Mahama has directed an increase in security services recruitment from 5000 to 10,000 yearly.
A statement from the presidency dated Monday, March 16, revealed the directive comes following a high-level meeting with heads of the various agencies.
President Mahama’s directives will see the number of men and women recruited to the various security agencies increased from twenty thousand (20,000) to forty thousand (40,000) over four years.
In a Presidency communication shared by signed by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, read, “President John Dramani Mahama has held a high-level meeting with the Heads of Security Agencies, Minister for the Interior and Acting Minister for Defence on the ongoing security services recruitment process.
Following a briefing on the process, the President has directed that the number of men and women to be recruited to the various security agencies should be increased from twenty thousand (20,000) to forty thousand (40,000) over a four-year period.
The President has also directed the Heads of the Security Agencies to ensure transparency and fairness in the recruitment process.
Present at the meeting were the Chief of Staff, Secretary to the President, Senior Presidential Advisor on Governmental Affairs, National Security Coordinator, Inspector General of Police, Director General Prisons, Director General Fire Service, Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service and the Director General of the Narcotics Control Commission”.
The development follows, Muntaka Mubarak, the Minister for the Interior, who had revealed that only 5000 applicants out of 105,000 qualified for medicals will be recruited.
The Interior Minister stressed that the introduction of the aptitude test was to prevent the unfair practice of having 400,000 people pay for medicals for a space of 5,000.
According to the Interior Minister, the pass mark of the aptitude exams was 65, which has 105,000 applicants qualifying for medicals.
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