Regional News of Thursday, 18 September 2014

Source: starrfmonline.com

Don't complain about National Service postings - NSS PRO

The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Service Scheme, Ambrose Entsiwah Junior, has asked service applicants to learn to accept their various postings without complaining.

Entsiwah told Kafui Dey on the Morning Starr on Thursday that the concept of national service is misunderstood in Ghana for a state-sponsored luxury.

“Everyone wants to be in the big cities and do all the finer jobs,” he said.

The PRO said all service applicants put pressure on the secretariat by selecting Greater Accra as their region of choice for posting and that must change.

He stated: “They all select the Greater Accra region as their first-choice and maybe Ashanti region as second-choice and expect to be posted? How do we manage that?”

Denying accusations that the Secretariat gives priority to children of affluent people in society who are willing to pay for better postings ahead of others based on their protocol list system, he said the list only exists to protect people who have peculiar health conditions or some other issues that may be a hindrance.

“The protocol list covers a number of categories of people. If someone is married we allow that they choose the place that suits them and their spouses. More importantly also for health reasons or special service provisions as a teaching assistant at some University. Otherwise this year we posted up to 21, 000 to the Greater Accra Region and I don’t want to believe that all these people are children of big men,” Entsiwah pointed out.

Entsiwah on the show also stated clearly that the Service is not in control of and cannot be held responsible for the departments to which institutions decide to put the applicants when they begin their service.

The 2014/2015 postings were released first week in September, 2014. Some service applicants have complained they were posted to some morgues and Ebola control centers across the country and are threatening to pull out of the program.