Minority Urges Govt to Refund GH¢113m to Disqualified Security Recruitment Applicants

• The Minority in Parliament has urged the government to refund an estimated GH¢113 million collected from applicants disqualified in the ongoing security services recruitment
• John Ntim Fordjour argued that retaining the application fees of disqualified applicants is unfair and amounts to profiting from the desperation of unemployed youth
• The Minority has also called for a full review of the recruitment process and demanded transparency on the number of applicants, disqualification criteria, and revenue from the sale of forms

The Minority in Ghana's Parliament has urged the government to refund an estimated GH¢113 million collected from applicants disqualified in the ongoing internal security services recruitment.

According to them, the recruitment exercise has left hundreds of thousands of applicants frustrated after many were disqualified despite paying the application fee.

Addressing this pressing issue on behalf of the Minority Caucus, the Ranking Member on Parliament's Defence and Interior Committee, John Ntim Fordjour, argued that it would be unfair and exploitative for the state to retain the application fees of applicants who were denied the opportunity to progress through the recruitment process.

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"It's unacceptable for the government to profit from the desperation of unemployed Ghanaian youth," he said.

In a report sighted on GhanaWeb, Fordjour further suggested that the recruitment exercise may have been poorly designed or managed due to the scale of the disqualification.

He alleged that there were some applicants who were disqualified without clear explanations despite meeting the basic qualification requirements.

Minority calls for review of recruitment process

The Minority Caucus consequently urged the government to conduct a full review of the recruitment exercise and publish detailed information on the number of applicants, the criteria used for disqualification, and the exact amount accrued from the sale of the application forms.

According to Fordjour, refunding the money would demonstrate good faith on the part of the government and also restore public trust in the recruitment process.

The Minority also called on the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the recruitment exercise, to ensure transparency and accountability in the ongoing process.

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Facts about 2025/2026 security service recruitment exercise

This year's security services recruitment exercise began in December 2025.

It covers the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana National Fire Service, and the Ghana Prisons Service.

According to the Minister for the Interior, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, the recruitment exercise attracted close to 500,000 applications from across the 16 regions of Ghana, indicating that 105,000 applicants have progressed to the medical screening stage at the end of the aptitude test.

Out of the 105,000 applicants who are currently at the medical screening stage, only 5,000 people will be recruited into the various internal security services.

He explained that authorities set the pass mark for the recruitment aptitude test at 65 to control the number of candidates progressing to the medical stage.

According to him, the decision was necessary to keep the recruitment process manageable and fair, considering the limited capacity of the security agencies.

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“Are you going to allow over 400,000 people to go and do medicals when you know you have space for only 5,000? How fair are you to the people? You need to devise a method to slow down the numbers and have a reasonable figure,” he said.

Kokofu slams gov’t over security service recruitment

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported earlier that Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu had accused the government of using the ongoing security service recruitment to extort money from unemployed youth.

The Interior Minister, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, confirmed that over 105,000 applicants have reached medical screening, but only 5,000 will be recruited.

Kokofu described encouraging over 400,000 people to apply for such limited slots as “robbery and daylight extortion.

Source: YEN.com.gh