NHIS must cover medical screening — Mornah

A leading member of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, has proposed that the cost of medical screening for qualified applicants seeking recruitment into the security services be covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

That, he said, would ease the financial burden on applicants and promote inclusivity.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Mornah said apart from paying approximately GH¢220 during the application process, shortlisted candidates were also required to pay between GH¢1,600 and GH¢2,000 for medical examinations. 

“The extraction of such significant sums from unemployed citizens for a process already supported by government resources raises serious concerns about equity and fairness,” he stated.

Interest

He said there was a growing mismatch between education and employment as each year, thousands of trained professionals enter the workforce with limited opportunities, pushing many towards the security services as one of the few viable options for a stable income.

Mr Mornah stated that addressing those disparities required bold leadership and prudent management of national resources.

“Ghana is richly endowed with minerals—including gold, lithium, diamonds, bauxite, salt, oil, manganese and iron—yet many citizens continue to live at the fringes of poverty.

There is an urgent need to reassess the structure of ownership and benefits derived from these resources,” he stressed. 

He called for a more assertive national policy that ensured greater state participation and an equitable distribution of wealth, adding that “no nation develops sustainably without maintaining meaningful control over its natural resources”.

Fairness

Mr Mornah called for further reforms centred on fairness, accessibility, transparency and affordability to help restore public confidence in the recruitment process.

“The aspirations of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian youth must not be undermined by systemic inefficiencies or avoidable barriers,” he stated.

He said it was encouraging to learn of the directive to increase recruitment numbers from 20,000 to 40,000 over four years.

“However, if approximately 105,000 candidates are deemed qualified, the criteria used to limit opportunities for the rest must be reconsidered to ensure transparency and fairness,” he observed.

Livelihood

He said many applicants were driven largely by the desire to secure a livelihood.

“While recruitment into these services has traditionally followed structured selection criteria at regional centres, the current process has raised serious concerns among many applicants and observers,” he said.

Mr Mornah said a large part of disqualifications seemed to arise from factors like height and small physical features.

“In today’s modern security environment, operations increasingly rely on intelligence, technical expertise and strategic thinking rather than purely physical characteristics.

“Denying capable individuals the opportunity to serve based on such criteria risks excluding thousands of potentially valuable personnel,” he said.