GRA and police rank high. What are the other jobs for dubious reasons and how much bribe is demanded for each job?
There are good jobs and bad jobs for relevant reasons.
There are very good jobs for the wrong reasons.
Which job would you like to do and for what reason in terms of monetary benefits?
Employment is one singular term that is discussed daily and broadly. Application for jobs can be very demanding and self-exhausting, especially for new entrants to the labour market. Employees consider a lot of factors before deciding which job to apply for, including the monetary rewards that the employees stand to enjoy in employment. However, in the country, Ghana, applying for jobs or placements in government institutions demands that the applicants pay huge sums of money, for bribes, to shadow hands to secure the job or recruitment. There are vast differences in the amount of money (bribe) applicants have to pay for each job. The amount of bribes demanded is normally different for a particular job and is based on the level of corrupt opportunities in that employment.
Currently, in Ghana, there is no one in the country who does not know about the tradition of paying huge bribes to secure jobs in any government institution. Even teacher training and nursing training graduates who are posted in mass without any vigorous interview or process have certain schemes inbedded in the recruitment process just to solicit bribes from the vulnerable ones. An example is where referred graduates who re-took their exams and duly passed are unduly delayed and, in the process, bribes are demanded from those who can not wait to be posted for them to be at post before their colleagues, allegedly. Though payment of bribes before recruitment into state institutions is now a norm in all jobs opportunities in Ghana, unlike before the last decade, the focus of the discussion is on the jobs or employment which are very good jobs for dubious or corrupt reasons allegedly.
1. Ghana Police: Ghana police, as some people have indicated, is the face of corruption in Ghana. Market days in most rural communities are the bumper harvest days of their extortion from motorists. Ghana police consider any road traffic regulation as a means of extortion. Though they are very good at identifying and arresting motorists for flouting regulations, the resolution of the cases is an avenue to extort money from their victims. Hardly any road traffic offence goes to court. Due to the opportunity to extort money from motorists, even the police personnel who are not supposed to be on the road organise themselves for the extortion expedition. It is for this reason that the shadow hands demanding bribes to facilitate recruitment into the service peg their demands commensurate with the opportunity available to the personnel to recoup their invested bribes.
2. Revenue Authority: The name of the authority already indicated the level of cash passing through it. In the year 2012, former president H.E President Attah Mills wept at Tema Harbour when he visited the port after watching an investigative documentary compiled by a revered investigative journalist in Ghana, Anas, with respect to the level of bribery and corruption taking place at the port. The president’s cry did not change anything much, since the system in place does not allow for any forced change. Customs officials collect huge bribes from importers and export to under-declare their duties that must be paid. Prospective applicants might pay more than police applicants to be recruited into the authority.
3. Audit service: Auditors have the task of exposing their auditee who embezled funds. However, the auditors are at the mercy of inducements from the auditee who know the auditors would come in the future and so prepare for them with a bit of the stolen or misappropriated funds. The tradition in Ghana where auditors are well fed by the auditee during auditing is the beginning of a dubious advantage enjoyed by auditors unlike other public sector workers. The auditors have the opportunity to keep their allowances and salaries paid to them to do their jobs well. Prospective applicants may not even hear or read about the declaration of vacancies in audit service until the vacancies are filled by applicants who pay huge sums of bribes.
4. Land commission and related institutions: Land litigation can be very complicated to handle. Citizens who just want to obtain a document to cover their land have to go through a very laborious, expensive and non-one-stop process to register their land. The very frustrating process of acquiring an indenture, land title registration and even searches all cost money that does not have any receipt to complete any of the process.
5. EPA: Environmental Protection Agency is an institution that grants permits to developers to develop a location without destroying the environment. Granting of permits in Ghana, which comes with the payment of bribes, is now considered acceptable. The bribes are meant to fast track the processes that those institutions have set up for themselves and believe they are the most efficient and effective and yet considered labourous by the managers of such institutions themselves and the public.
Applicants for these five (5) jobs need to pay heavy bribes, allegedly, to secure them. The end result is unending corrupt practices in state institutions and the country at large.
By: Asterisk
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