Minister of Defense, Dominic Nitiwul, has stated there is no protocol allocation in recruitment into the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
According to him, the process that the military goes through in this exercise does not even lend itself to protocol allocation.
“I can confirm that Members of Parliament are not given protocol allocation and so tell your constituents. MPs have never been given and will never be given protocol allocation in the military recruitment,” he stated.
Hon. Dominic Nitiwul disclosed this on the floor of Parliament when he answered a question filed by MP for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza on the steps the Ministry is taking to ensure equity in the recruitment of personnel into the Ghana Armed Forces.
He stated that to ensure equity in the recruitment of personnel into the military, the Minister of Defense through the Ghana Armed Forces personnel administration set some general standards that prospective applicants will have to meet before they are qualified to be recruited.
He said, “In addition to the general requirements the Armed Forces ensure that there is regional balance, which is nearly as equal to the original population quota of the immediate past population and Housing Census, as well as a minimum of 15% for women requirement.
He explained that the only change with past recruitment processes is the increase in the number of women from 10% to a minimum of 15% and stressed that all other processes remain the same and are guided by regional balance.
To a suggestion for the military to decentralize its recruitment in order to ensure ethnic balance in view of the cosmopolitan nature of the regional, municipal and district capitals, the Defense Minister stated recruitment is done by personnel administration of the Ghana Armed Forces headquarters in Burma Camp.
The unit, he said, however, establishes centers in the various regions where recruitment officers assess applicants but stressed there is a good reason why questions of the ethnicity of applicants are not asked.
He, however, pledged to confer with the personnel administration to consider the feasibility of decentralizing the process further.
Source: MyPublisher24.com
