National Service postings based on “specific requests”

• Posted on September 7, 2013September 7, 2013
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The 2013/ 2014 national service deployment list has been released with the Greater Accra topping the number of personnel deployed, followed by Ashanti Region, with Upper West Region, recording the lowest.

The trend in regional distribution with regards to requests, choice of regions and deployment, remains a major challenge for the scheme.
But Speaking on the AM Show on Joy News Channel, Director of Public Relations, Ambrose Ntriwa Jnr says, these challenges would soon be ironed out with the revision of the scheme.

He says National Service posting would, this time round be based on specification and demands from firms for the services of personnel. These form part of a broader revision process of how the scheme works.

“The NSS was setup to mobilize national youth to areas of national priorities to serve the nation for a year before their induction to the world of work and the system has been revised to meet the expectation of service personnel”, he said.

He urged all awaiting service personnel to visit the web page of the NSS to find out where they have been posted to. He also assured personnel who just finished their Service that, their certificates will be ready by end of next month.

He also advised prospective personnel on the appropriate use of their PINS:

“When you put NSS before the pin code provided, it accesses a different person’s page, so personnel’s should notice and use their Unique Numbers to access their page in order for them to know where they have been posted to”

Asked if all agencies including the state institutions bring in requests before personnel are posted there, he said “we do not impose service persons on them” and went on to explain that they reconfirm if they will still need the personnel before they post them.

On the issue of posting someone who has a particular background of fashion and designing to a place like a hospital, he explained that people on the outside will not really understand because the personnel may not be going to the hospital to work as a nurse or doctor but maybe he/she is there to sew some of the dresses for the patients or bed sheets for the wards.

Meanwhile Ambrose Ntriwa Jnr has debunked perceptions that prospect personnel can be put on a “Protocol list” to fast-track their ability to get their preferred choices.

He Jnr told Gifty Andoh on the AM Show, the scheme does not have any institutionalized protocol list that they treat but reiterated that “we are all humans and might need any kind of help at any particular time”

Delays in payment of allowances to Service Personnel remain one of the most daunting challenges facing the young men and women deployed to locations so far away from their own homes. To make matters worse is the low sums these personnel are paid.

But Ambrose Ntiwah Jnr, said, proposals have been put before government for an increment of the allowances, to which he was optimistic “Service personnel will soon be smiling”

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