The behaviour of the Former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the recruitment saga that’s in the news was not an isolated case. First, this is what he did. The Civil Service procedures required a written examination and interview. He was aware of this procedure and so did not interfere. But when the panel finished its legally-mandated duty and recommended 30 persons for appointment, as was agreed with the Ministry of Finance, the former minister then set about to undermine the lawful work of the interview panel. First he chose 11 names out of the 30 the interview panel recommended. He then added 22 names who also wrote the exam and attended the interview but did not make it into the top 30. And now, the most despicable part of the whole shameful saga: he added 7 other names who did not apply, did not write the entry examination and did not attend the interview. This behaviour raises several questions. What criteria did the former minister use in picking his own list? Why did he recruit 10 more than the number that the Ministry of Finance said could be funded?, etc.

Shocking as that behaviour of the former minister might be, sadly, his was not an aberrant action. For the eight years of NPP rule that was the standard behaviour. Positions were advertised, applications received, interviews held and the outcomes of the interviews ignored and cronies, relations and highest bribe payers were appointed. It was a pattern you would find in the Ghana Police Service (ever heard of policemen and women who could not write entries into their station diaries, there are now many of them recruited in the 8 years of NPP rule – 300 of them come from Asamoah Boateng’s village alone), the Ghana Armed Forces, the entire Civil Service (especially the foreign service), the Universities and other tertiary institutions. The universities did not hide it that much. They operated a multi-layered admissions policy that bore no resemblance to academic honesty. They had a protocol list, by which university leaders (and one traditional chief) were allocated a number of places that each was free to fill at their whims; then they have a list for the rich – they called it fee quota – and justified it by claiming that was how they covered shortfalls in government funding. The examples are just too many to continue to enumerate.

Recruitment into anything under the 8-year rule of NPP was based on only one thing: corruption. If you did not know anybody who knew somebody, you have to pay your way.

I am not surprised by some Silians jumping to the defense of the former Foreign Minister. The practice was so widespread that some Silians could have been beneficiaries themselves or knew somebody who benefited or, perhaps, gave money for a beneficiary to pay the required bribe. Interestingly, the man himself has refused to comment because, thank heavens, he left a documentary trail of his shenanigans, yet people come onto Sil to defend him and make it as if it is rather the current Foreign Minister who had done anything wrong by re-instating the original 30 persons who had been recommended by that panel that worked under the watch of the former Foreign Minister. Why are we so thin on virtue?