The recruitment process plays a vital role in identifying and selecting qualified individuals to be trained as police officers. The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary’s (RPNGC) new improved online system used in the 2025 recruitment has six stages.
1.Screening & Validation
From the list published, all shortlisted candidates will undergo screening and validation. This is the stage where all information and documents are verified. Prior to entering the venues, candidates are required to present their ID cards phone numbers and email addresses that were used to apply. The candidates are then sent through for height check. The cut off height requirement for female is 158cm and male is 160cm. Once the height is checked, the candidates then present their NID Cards, Original Birth Certificate and School Certificates, especially grades 10, 12 and Fode certificates to the recruitment officers to verify. If the documents are in place and proven to be valid, the candidate qualifies for the next stage which is the testing phase and if not, the candidate gets eliminated.
During this stage, a good number were eliminated due to no NID Cards & Birth Certificates, no original school certificates and some were found to be in possession of fake documents. Those in possession of fake documents were cautioned, warned, and sent away whilst the fake documents were confiscated.
2.Testing
Those that pass the first stage are qualified to sit for an hour-long competency test. The test is made up of two parts, the first part is an essay, and the second part is multiple-choice questions of general knowledge. The essay topics are based on the burning issues of the country. The cut-off mark is 65 percent. Those that pass this stage moves on to the next stage which is the job interview.
A big chunk of candidates gets eliminated at this stage. Young people are encouraged to educate themselves, stay up to date with current affairs, read a lot and use their smartphones wisely to build their knowledge capacity.
3. Interview
Like every other job recruitment, an interview is conducted. Those that pass the testing phase are being interviewed. Each panel consists of two recruitment officers. After a candidate is being interviewed, based on their response to the interview questions, the two officers will assess and give a score each which are then added to determine whether the candidate passed or failed the interview stage.
Those that pass the interview will proceed to the next stage which is Medical Check.
4.Medical Check
At this stage, an arrangement is done with a Medical Doctor of each province to do a full medical check on the candidates at the provincial general hospitals or genuine clinics. Based upon the results provided by the Doctor, those that are medically fit will undergo physical fitness which is the next stage.
5.Physical Fitness
There are nine exercises for the Physical Fitness entry test. The nine exercises include a 100 metres sprint, 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, 50 burpees, 50 step-ups, 10 triceps-deep, 10 dorsal-raise, 10 leg-raise and a 1.5km run. The cut-off percentage for Physical Fitness Test is 60%. Points are awarded and calculated for each exercise and those that pass the cut-off mark proceeds to the last stage which is the Character Refence Check.
6.Charecter Reference Check
This is the last phase where the recruiting officers contact the referees that were provided by the applicants and do a background check on the candidates. Those that are cleared as genuine and good citizens will qualify to undergo police training.
With the new online system, every candidate is kept well informed of their progress of each stage through an automated email response. Candidates do not need to front up each each day to see their progressive results. This saves them time and effort.
The recruitment drive in Southern and Momase Regions is nearing completion. The last two provinces are Morobe and Western.
For Western Province, the recruitment team completed recruitment for Daru with two successful candidates of the 19 that was shortlisted. The recruitment team will proceed to Kiunga next week.
For Morobe province a total of 732 were shortlisted for Screening and Validation. 23 were duplicates, 162 did not show up, 121 were eliminated and 426 passed the Screening and Validation phase and sat for the Entry Test.
From the 426 that sat for the test, 328 candidates did not meet the pass mark whilst 98 passed the Testing phase. One-third of the 98 candidates were interviewed yesterday and the rest will be interviewed today at the Lae Secondary School Hall. Those that pass the interview phase and does not have a recent National Police Clearance will pay for their Police Clearance and have the RPNGC Forensic team process their Police Clearance.
Officer in Charge for Recruitment Inspector Elisha Walaget and the recruitment officers screening and validating the shortlisted candidates’ documents.