The Former, Chief Executive Officer of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Dr. Michael Whyte Kpessa has told GHOne news that he did not violate the constitution in recruiting 207 people on the NSS as alleged by the incumbent deputy CEO of the NSS, Henry Nana Boakye.
He described the allegations that he erred as baseless and unnecessary. According to him, the decision to recruit people onto the scheme started in 2015. In that same period letters were written to the Public Services Commission and the Ministry of Finance for clearance to recruit for 207 vacancies and the request was granted by both state institutions.
Following the permission given by the Public Services Commission and the Ministry of Finance to proceed with the recruitment process, the National Service Scheme Board met and examined the exigencies of the situation and decided that part of the employment process be outsourced. The decision was mainly to free the process of partisan politics and to also make it more transparent.
Management of the NSS requested from various Human Resource Companies interested to bid for the job.
According to Dr. Whyte Kpessa, the reasons for outsourcing the recruitment was due to the following:
• Time constraints. Staffs at the NSS were saddled with a lot of responsibilities hence if they had done it internally, they wouldn’t have met the deadline.
• They want to rebuild and rebrand the scheme against the scandals that riddled it past.
“You cannot continue doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. If internal people were engaged in the employment process, cost would have been way more. The scandals of the past would have reared its head again.” He explained.
In honour of the Public Services Commission and the Ministry of Finance’s clearance to recruit, three HR Companies sourced for the contract. The three companies bided for the deal at the following cost:
• First company…………………………… Ghc 100,000.00
• The second company………………… Ghc 200,000.00
• The third company …………………… Ghc 300,000.00
He said the NSS was more concerned about the cost and quality of service as well and that culminated in the scheme settling for the company which bided for the job at Ghc 100,000.00. Dr. Kpessa said members of the scheme were put on board to ensure that the bidder was forthright in executing the job.
He also refuted claims that the Public Services Commission subsequently directed the NSS to halt the recruitment process adding that the PSC only advised them to examine the possible flaws that may have arisen from the process and take action to correct them.
“On whose authority has the current management dismissed these 207 recruits? As far as l am concerned, the current scheme has no board in place. Let me also make it clear that management cannot outdo the decision of a board,” Dr. Kpessa questioned.
On his part, he also inherited liabilities such as people given recruitment without clearance but didn’t instruct that all of them be dismissed, instead he invited them and resolved the problem with them amicably.
Dr. Michael Whyte Kpessa is hereby calling on all affected persons in the massive dismissal to seek redress in the court saying that whichever way the court decides will be good.
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