John Mahama
It has emerged that the Mills/Mahama National Democratic Congress (NDC) government that ruled between 2009 and 2016 received huge kickbacks in order to allow Airbus SE to sell rickety transport aircraft to Ghana’s military.
The explosive bribery scandal has become a subject of international news where Airbus is said to have been fined a record £3 billion in penalties by the courts in England after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries.
With regard to documents sent to court after a thorough investigation, UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) quoted at least 5 million Euros as payment of kickbacks to Ghanaian officials through an intermediary who is a close relative of a high-ranking elected Ghanaian government official during the erstwhile Mahama administration.
Key Actors
There are six key actors involved in the corruption-infested case regarding Ghana, and the UK investigators from the SFO have lined them up as Government Official 1 (high ranking and elected), Intermediary 5 (British national and close relative of Government Official 1), Company D (corporate vehicle for Intermediary 5 – shareholder), Intermediary 6 (British national and associate of Intermediary 5), Intermediary 7 (British national and associate of Intermediary 5), as well as Intermediary 8 (Spanish company and front for Intermediary 5).
Recent Accident
DAILY GUIDE is getting signals that the CASA C295 with registration number GHF552 that overran the apron during a routine engine run recently is one of the aircraft the Airbus sold to the Ghanaian government.
The CASA C295 manufactured in November 2015 and delivered in February 2016 was due for a mandatory check in November 2019.
Count 5
In the bribery scandal involving Ghana, the UK prosecutors charged Airbus on Count 5 where it detailed every fraudulent transaction mostly through misrepresentations by Airbus top officials and the intermediaries, acting on behalf of Ghana, to get free cash.
Part of Count 5 mentions “a close relative of a high-ranking elected Ghanaian Government official” during the Mahama administration as the person who was engaged by Airbus in the proposed sale of military transport aircraft to the Government of Ghana.
He is described by investigators as Intermediary 5 who, according to the UK SFO, is a close relative of the elected Ghanaian official.
Employees Complicity
“A number of Airbus employees knew that Intermediary 5 was a close relative of Government Official 1, who was a key decision maker in respect of the proposed sales,” Count 5 of the court documents explained, adding, “A number of Airbus employees made or promised success-based commission payments of approximately €5 million to Intermediary 5.”
To facilitate the corrupt deal, Count 5 said, “False documentation was created by or with the agreement of Airbus employees in order to support and disguise these payments.”
“The fifth count alleges that contrary to section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010, between 1 July 2011 and 1 June 2015 Airbus SE failed to prevent persons associated with Airbus SE from bribing others concerned with the purchase of military transport aircraft by the Government of Ghana, where the said bribery was intended to obtain or retain business or advantage in the conduct of business for Airbus SE.”
2009-2015 Episdoe
It said, “Between 2009 and 2015, an Airbus defence company engaged Intermediary 5, a close relative of a high-ranking elected Ghanaian Government official (Government Official 1) as its BP in respect of the proposed sale of three military transport aircraft to the Government of Ghana.”
According to the documents, “A number of Airbus employees knew that Intermediary 5 was a close relative of Government Official 1, who was a key decision maker in respect of the proposed sales. A number of Airbus employees made or promised success-based commission payments of approximately €5 million to Intermediary 5. False documentation was created by or with the agreement of Airbus employees in order to support and disguise these payments.”
Improper Favour
It said that “the payments were intended to induce or reward ‘improper favour’ by Government Official 1 towards Airbus. Payments were eventually stopped due to the arrangement failing the due diligence processes required by the Liquidation Committee.”
Spanish Subsidiaries
The UK SFO moved before the court that Airbus, through one of its Spanish defence subsidiaries, conducted two campaigns to sell its C-295 military transport aircraft to the Government of Ghana and the first campaign ran from 2009 to 2011, with the second from 2013 to 2015.
“Intermediary 5, a UK national with no prior expertise in the aerospace industry, acted as the BP for Airbus in both,” the documents made it clear, adding, “Company D was the corporate vehicle through which Intermediary 5 and his associates provided services to Airbus. His associates were Intermediaries 6 and 7, also UK nationals and there is no evidence they had any aerospace experience either.”
It said, “In August 2011, the purchase agreement for the sale of the two C-295 aircraft was signed by the Spanish defence subsidiary and the Government of Ghana, and it contained a declaration of compliance with the 1997 OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, as well as a declaration that no more than €3,001,718.15 would be paid to BPs in connection with the contract (broadly a 5 percent commission).”
The report said, “After Company D made a formal BP application to Airbus in May 2011, Airbus commissioned an external due diligence report,” adding, “In September 2011, this report identified Intermediary 5 as a shareholder of Company D.”
Non-Compliance Risk
The report raised the possibility that Intermediary 5 was a close relative of Government Official 1, and concerns that there was a risk of non-compliance with the OECD Convention came up strongly.
“The reaction of a number of Airbus employees, including senior employees, and those involved in compliance, in an email chain in October 2011, is set out at para 188 of the Statement of Facts,” it said, adding, “In short, it was that the business should be conducted through a new third party, a company, already audited and engaged in the same area. A Spanish company, already an Airbus BP (Intermediary 8) Approved Judgment SFO v Airbus SE and which had no previous links or experience of working in Ghana for any Airbus entity, was duly selected.”
Circumventing Compliance
The UK SFO said in the court documents that “a number of Airbus employees (two of them senior, and one involved in compliance) thus agreed to deliberately circumvent the proper compliance process by falsely representing that the work in the First Campaign had been done by Intermediary 8, which could, in turn, make the money available to Intermediary 5 and others.”
Excess Payment
According to the report, even the sum paid to Intermediary 8, and then by Intermediary 8 to Intermediary 5 “exceeded (in the latter case by about €850,000) the agreed commission amount set out in the declaration of compliance referred to above.”
“Similar false representations to those detailed above were made in February 2014 and then in May 2015, in respect of work allegedly done by Intermediary 8 in respect of a further proposed purchase by the Government of Ghana of a C295.”
Declining Participation
It said when the Liquidation Committee requested further due diligence before any payments were made, an external due diligence report was completed in respect of Intermediary 8, and Intermediary 8 “declined to participate in interviews by external counsel Airbus had engaged to conduct extended due diligence interviews.”
“Intermediary 8, therefore, failed due diligence; Airbus did not enter into a second written contract or make any further commission payments (disputing Intermediary 5’s later claim that he was owed €1,675,000).”
Embraer Scandal
The Mahama-led NDC administration is no stranger to allegation of as far as transactions involving the purchase of military equipment, particularly aircraft, are concerned.
In 2011, Martin Amidu, then Attorney-General and currently Special Prosecutor, alleged that President Mills set up an investigation into the procurement of Embraer aircraft from Brazil, a deal led and negotiated by then Vice-President Mahama in 2010.
At the time, the manufacturer’s quoted prices for an Embraer 190 jet ranged between $28 million and $40 million for one with enhanced accessories but when then Mahama-led team negotiated it was to be sold to Ghana at the flat rate of $55.26 million, which was to be enhanced to a total cost of $88 million to the taxpayer.
The deal included fitting an extra fuel tank at a cost of $8 million; air staircase at $1 million and; an in-flight entertainment cost of $1.4 million.
Citizen Vigilante
Mr. Amidu had said at the time as Citizen Vigilante that “a Committee to Investigate the Processes of the Acquisition of Five Aircraft (5) including Embraer 190 Aircraft and hanger for the Ghana Armed Forces consisting of Mr. William Aboah, Mr. George Amoah, and Brig. Gen. Allotey (Rtd) former Judge Advocate-General was put together.”
He even went ahead to explain the terms of reference for the committee as “(i) to investigate the processes adopted in selecting, negotiating, and agreeing on the acquisition of the aircraft; (ii) to investigate the competitive advantage, prices of the aircrafts and the level of economic and financial due diligence conducted by relevant agencies in the process of acquisition of the aircraft; and (iii) to investigate any other matter that in the opinion of the Committee is reasonably related to the foregoing terms of reference.”
Building Hangers
There was also the allegation of the Mills/Mahama-led NDC government supervising the construction of a hanger for the Ghana Armed Forces at an outrageous cost of $17 million in 2010 when just two years earlier in 2008, the same facility had been built for $5 million.
From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr.; Kumasi