A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) communication team and aspiring National Vice Chairman, Malik Adama, has called for the verification of applicants’ academic certificates before they are recruited into Ghana’s security services.
His comments follow concerns raised by the Interior Minister over the discovery of forged certificates among some applicants recruited into the security services.
Speaking on Ahotor FM’s morning show, Malik Adama argued that conducting proper verification at the initial stage of the recruitment process would help prevent qualified applicants from losing opportunities because positions had been occupied by people who later turn out to have submitted fraudulent documents.
According to him, some security institutions and educational institutions admit applicants first and subsequently conduct detailed checks on their documents during training.
He said this approach could create problems because an individual may be allowed to go through part of the training before authorities discover that his or her academic credentials are not genuine.
Malik Adama explained that when such applicants are eventually dismissed, the opportunity that could have gone to another qualified person has already been lost.
«“If they look through your documents before recruitment, because they have blocked other people’s opportunity, you see that number of people needed in the security services—if they sack those with fake grades, they have blocked others’ opportunity.”»
He therefore urged the Interior Minister and the various security agencies to make certificate authentication a mandatory requirement at the first stage of recruitment, rather than waiting until applicants have entered training.
Malik Adama suggested that applicants could be required to authenticate their certificates directly with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) before submitting their applications.
He said WAEC could verify the authenticity of the results, stamp or certify the documents, and allow applicants to attach the authenticated certificates to their recruitment applications.
He believes such a system would ensure that only applicants with genuine academic qualifications progress through the recruitment process.
According to him, this would not only help the security services identify fraudulent documents but would also protect the interests of genuine applicants who compete for the limited vacancies available.
He stressed that early verification would also save the state resources that could otherwise be spent training recruits who may eventually be dismissed after their credentials are found to be fraudulent.
Malik Adama maintained that the issue should therefore be addressed at the initial recruitment stage to prevent unnecessary losses and ensure fairness in the selection process.
He urged the Interior Minister to consider introducing stronger certificate-verification measures into future recruitment exercises so that applicants’ academic credentials are authenticated before they are admitted into training.
By Stephen Kwaku Owusu Mintah Ahotoronline, Accra.
