John Dramani Mahama
Members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) appear to be avoiding the Airbus SE scandal that has engulfed a top government official of their party which the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is claiming is former President John Dramani Mahama.
They are now saying that the details of the said official and his brother named simultaneously by investigators in the United Kingdom, United States and France are immaterial and unnecessary.
A historic judgment at the UK Crown Court of Southwark, London, has seen Airbus SE being fined a record £3 billion in penalties after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries, including Ghana.
UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in documents sent to court quoted at least 5 million Euros as payment of kickbacks to a top Ghanaian official through an intermediary who is a close relative of “a high ranking elected Ghanaian government official” in Ghana during the NDC administration.
NDC Press Conference
A press conference hosted by the party yesterday appeared to be a response to an earlier one by the NPP in which the party pointed at the former President as being ‘Elected Government Official 1’ by the UK authorities or Individual 1 as presented by the US authorities in the Airbus scandal.
Unusual Silence
With the former President unusually silent on social media on the raging scandal, it appears the party hierarchy has decided to step in with various interventions as contained in yesterday’s press conference.
The responses seemingly uncoordinated so far have fallen short of the expectations of curious Ghanaians who want the former President to respond to the suspicions that he is the one being referred to in the European and American court judgments.
The National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, claimed that the said the monies doled out between 2009 and 2015 by the aircraft manufacturing giant for which it has been fined are inaccurate.
Propaganda Steps
His address was two-pronged, seeking to belittle the importance of the case and to question the integrity of the judgment by punching holes in the figures referred to.
“In fact, not even the unnamed so-called government official 1 (GO1) is cited in the report or approved judgment for demanding or receiving a bribe or committing any offence,” he claimed.
“We can state with a large degree of certainty that the UK SFO would have stated that bribes were paid to the said GO1 if they had found so in their investigations,” he added.
Turning to the UK SFO, he said its report was bereft of the details being demanded.
“Therefore, to the extent that the said ‘Government Official 1’ is not cited for any offence in any of the approved judgments, his or her identity is totally immaterial,” he said.
Ghana is one of the five countries mentioned in the UK court judgment where the Airbus bribes were doled out to government officials.
It is amazing that the NDC communications officer is ignoring the fact that the Airbus admitted five counts of failing to stop bribery as it used a network of agents to pay out the bribes in Ghana.
Sammy Gyamfi said instead of talking about the Airbus scandal, Ghanaians should rather concentrate on the excavators scandal that had rocked the NPP in the fight against illegal mining.
By A.R. Gomda