Ernest Owusu-Bempah Bonsu
Fixing the Country Movement has registered its displeasure about the relaxed conclusions reached by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on the £5m Airbus corruption scandal involving former President John Mahama.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Convener of Fixing the Country, Ernest Owusu-Bempah Bonsu, described the OSP investigation into the Airbus corruption scandal as worse than a whitewash.
“The truth has been painfully extracted one inch, at considerable public expense on the Airbus corruption investigation by the OSP. We utterly reject anything that looks like the OSP playing mind games with the good people of Ghana.
“Outside of this Shakespearean drama and expensive national disgrace by the OSP, this case has already seen the light of day in both the UK and US,” he said.
He said admissions and court documents, from 2008, and continuing until at least 2015, said Airbus engaged in and facilitated a scheme to offer and pay bribes to decision makers and other influencers, including foreign officials, in order to obtain improper business advantages and win lucrative contracts in several countries including Ghana.
He added that judicial records made public on January 31, 2020 by the British and American authorities, acknowledged by Airbus to be true, shows that between 2009 and 2015 an Airbus subsidiary specialising in the defence sector hired the brother of a high-ranking Ghanaian elected official (Government Official 1), as well as a friend of the said brother and a third person to serve as commercial partners in the sale of three military transport aircraft, model C295, to Ghana.
“The Airbus corruption is the biggest corruption case ever. Indeed, payment of bribes were made and received, and the beneficiary was Government Official 1,” he disclosed.
He also stressed that the UK court documents revealed that the intermediaries established a company in Ghana in December 2009, and that a company with the same name was established in the United Kingdom in February of the following year.
According to him, the Ghanaian company they investigated was owned by the brother of Mr. Mahama, and a British television actor who had publicly claimed to be the “best friend” of John Mahama.
In essence, the whole purpose of the OSP inquiry into the Airbus corruption was meant to be drawing a final line under the darkest chapter of the Mahama years – a once and for all chance, to get to the bottom of what happened.
“The OSP’s job was simply to get the culprits to answer the charges against them and not to engage in whitewashing as he has done here.
“But the OSP would rather whitewash the entire process, even when Airbus had already accepted the complicity of its officials, hence the deferred prosecution agreement by the US Department of Justice and UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO),” he said.
He said Fixing the Country Movement holds the view that Mr. Mahama and his brother Adam Mahama have a lot of questions to answer, and as such trying to clear Mahama of any corruption related offences, the OSP must revisit this matter in the interest of public accountability and accountable governance.
“This shoddy work by Kissi Agyabeng, his office is more of a political theatre and reputation management of Mr. Mahama, and it cannot be allowed to stand,” he added.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah