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Mad rush for police recruitment forms at GCB Bank

Mad rush for police recruitment forms at GCB Bank

Thousands of prospective recruits besieged the premises of GCB Banks nationwide on Monday when the Ghana Police Service opened its recruitment process through the sale of electronic vouchers.

Very early in the morning, long winding queues were formed at branches of the bank across the country as some unemployed youth struggled to get the pins, the key to open the online application forms.

GCB Bank is the only bank responsible for the sale of the vouchers, which are to be used to complete the recruitment registration process online.

The registration vouchers contain special codes that enable each applicant to access the registration forms on the website of the Ghana Police Service.

A voucher costs GH¢50.

The recruitment process will close on December 15, 2017.

The winding queues were a pointer to the country’s high unemployment rate.

In the past, a number of people were duped in scams to get them recruited into the Police Service.

It was for that reason that the Police Service, last year, decided to introduce electronic means to receive applications as part of efforts to reduce the involvement of intermediaries.

The thousands of prospective recruits who had besieged the various GCB Bank branches last year, with the hope of paying for their electronic application vouchers which had gone on sale, had to endure long hours of waiting, since the system for selling the forms went down.

Previous police recruitment exercises had been marred by scams, with one of such scams leading to the removal of the Director General of Human Resource of the Ghana Police Service, COP Patrick Timbillah, in 2015.

After two years of investigations into that scam, COP Timbillah was sacked in January this year for his alleged role in the scandal.

Some of the youth gathered in front of the GCB Bank at Bolgatanga
Some of the youth gathered in front of the GCB Bank at Bolgatanga

A trend

Thousands of graduates besieged the head office of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in Accra some months ago to submit their applications to be enlisted into two state institutions.

By the close of the application window on August 15, 2017, the GCGL head office alone had received over 10,000 applications to fill various positions in a state institution as advertised on page eight of the Thursday, August 4, 2016 edition of the Daily Graphic.

The story was not different this year, as thousands who thought the Ghana Revenue Authority was receiving applications through the GCGL submitted their applications.

Read also: Dagbon youth demand end to chieftaincy conflict

In Accra, Zadok K. Gyesi reports that dozens of young men and women besieged the various branches of GCB Bank to purchase registration vouchers.

The Daily Graphic visited the head office of GCB Bank and other branches in Accra and interacted with some of the applicants who were seen in queues.

Richard Quaye, 22, said he had gone to the head office branch as early as 5:25 a.m. but as of midday yesterday he had not been served.

“We are to buy the vouchers here and complete the process ourselves, but we hear that some applicants are actually completing the whole process in the main banking hall,” he said.

He added that “if people only buy the vouchers and leave, the queue will be moving”.

Beatrice Adjei, 20, who lives at Adabraka, expressed disappointment at the fact that the system was slow, “so we are waiting for those in the banking hall to get served so that we can also get in”.

However, Rhoda Dotse, 23, a Kaneshie resident, expressed happiness that she had been served.

Bank’s assurance

The Head of Corporate Communications at GCB Bank, Mr Emmanuel Kojo Kwarteng, advised prospective applicants to be patient, since the exercise would be carried out over a three-week period.

He said it was being done across all the 161 branches of the bank across the country and that applicants should not consider the head office as the only place they could obtain the vouchers.

“We are not doing the registration here….we are only selling the vouchers,” he said.

From Kumasi, Donald Ato Dapatem reports that as early as 6 a.m., some of the youth were spotted at the Harper Road and the Adum branches of GCB Bank, waiting for the banking halls to be opened at 8 a.m. for them to purchase the vouchers.

At the Harper Road Branch, officials of the bank erected canopies to provide shade for the prospective police recruits.

Nicholas Abban, who had been in the queue for three hours, expressed the hope that he would be served before the close of work.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Abena Dufie, 22, from Asafo in Kumasi said she had first gone to the Harper Road Branch but was scared by the long winding queue and had to rush to the Adum Branch where the queue was manageable.

No official of the bank was ready and willing to comment on the issue.

Samuel Duodu writes from Tamale that some of the prospective applicants who had formed a long queue in front of the banking hall, while others were seated inside, told the Daily Graphic that they had arrived on the premises of the bank as early as 4 a.m. to buy the vouchers.

Officials of the Tamale main branch of the GCB Bank said the system was slow.

Rahinatu Adam, 22, from Buipe in the Central Gonja District said she had arrived on the bank premises about 4.30 a.m. yesterday.

She said she completed senior high school (SHS) last year and hoped to get recruited into the Police Service, since she had a lot of passion for the work.

Mahamoud Alhassan, a resident of  Tamale, said he completed SHS in 2012 and expressed the hope that he would go through the process to get recruited into the service.

He lauded the Police Administration for eliminating the human element in the recruitment process to prevent prospective applicants from being duped by so-called “middlemen”.

Monica Kwao, 20, from Buipe said she had arrived on the premises of the bank about 5 a.m. yesterday and expressed the hope that she would lay hands on the vouchers to begin the application process.

From Bolgatanga, Vincent Amenuveve reports that a young man who pleaded anonymity had told the Daily Graphic that owing to his inability to further his education, he had decided to try his luck in the police recruitment exercise to get employed.

A lady who gave her name only as Christine said she completed SHS two years ago but was unable to further her education and so she had decided to join the police, so that she could get some money to further her education.

Some of the youth claimed they had come to the Bolgatanga GCB Bank branch before the bank officially opened at 8:30 a.m. but the network was a bit slow.

From Ho, Kofi Atsivor reports that dozens of young people besieged the three branches of the GCB Bank to purchase the enlistment vouchers,

Daily Graphic checks at the Ho Main, Market and Poly GCB branches about 10:30 a.m. showed that prospective applicants were packed in the banking halls waiting in queues to buy the vouchers.

A female applicant, who gave her name as Grace, said she got to the Ho Main branch about 6 a.m. to join a long queue of prospective applicants waiting for the start of business at 8:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, some of them disclosed to the Daily Graphic that they were interested in joining the Police Service because of job security, while others said it was their desire to serve the nation as law enforcement officers.

Some applicants standing around the premises of the Ghana Commercial Bank Cape Coast main branch waiting for their turns to apply
Some applicants standing around the premises of the Ghana Commercial Bank Cape Coast main branch waiting for their turns to apply

Della Russel Ocloo reports from Tema that a number of young people who went to the Tema Main branch of the GCB Bank to purchase police recruitment vouchers were unable to do so owing to system failure.

Potential recruits, some of whom had gone to the bank to queue as early as 4 a.m., were left frustrated and dejected.

One of them, Tony Mensah, an Accountancy graduate from the Takoradi Technical University, who was one of the first people to queue at the bank at dawn, expressed his frustration, saying that he had hoped that bank officials would allocate time sheets to prospective applicants to enable them to return to the bank to complete the purchase process the following day.

Checks at the bank revealed that the branch created a separate platform with the bank's system to process the vouchers, but that, unfortunately, went down due to network challenges.

From Sunyani, Biiya Mukusah Ali reports that some of the young people who spoke to the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity said they had reported at the bank as early as 4 a.m.

According to them, all efforts to get the vouchers had proved futile, explaining that an officer of the bank had told them that the network was down.

Due to the network challenge at the bank, they had been issued with chits to be filled and submitted to the bank today for the issuance of the vouchers.

About 93 prospective applicants had successfully completed the registration process by 2 p.m. when the Daily Graphic visited the Koforidua branch of the GCB Bank, report Naa Lamiley Bentil and Irena Ansah Pobee.

Applicants who went through the registration process successfully, according to an official of the bank, Mr Aaron Kegyedah, were handed pin codes which would enable them to register online.

Sources at the bank indicated that some police hopefuls had reported at the bank as early as 3 a.m. yesterday, with the hope of completing the registration early.

The process, according to Mr Kegyedah, was rather slow due to the fact that it was a nationwide exercise and there was, therefore, a lot of pressure on the network.

From Cape Coast, Timothy Gobah and Deborah Oluwamuyiwa report that many young people were seen standing and sitting in queues in and around the GCB Bank Cape Coast Main and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) branches to purchase recruitment vouchers.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, an official at the Cape Coast Main branch who sought for anonymity said the process had been going on well, although there had been some technical hitches at the beginning of the process.

He attributed those hitches to the pressure on the servers, as many people were trying to access the recruitment site.

Michael Quaye reports from Wa that hordes of youth seeking recruitment into the Police Service left the GCB Bank in Wa frustrated yesterday because of a system breakdown.

As early as 7 a.m., a long queue had formed behind the entrance of the banking hall, with a mix of male and female potential recruits defying the Harmattan conditions.

One young woman, Sadia Mohammed, who was on the premises of the bank around 3 p.m., said she hoped the system would be restored so she could be attended to before leaving.

From Sekondi/Takoradi, Dotsey Koblah Aklorbortu reports that prospective applicants arrived at various branches of the GCB Bank as early as 6 a.m. but many had not been served as of midday.

Official sources at the bank explained to the Daily Graphic that the system had been functioning very well and that the bank was all set for the applicants, but the system went down yesterday morning.

The sources said the electronic sales platform was well-structured to generate serial numbers and pin codes and assured the applicants that the link would come up soon to commence the process.

 

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