Demonstrators from the Fixing the Country Movement have planned to rally at the office of former President John Dramani Mahama to protest against the delay in the investigation of the Airbus scandal.
The Movement expressed outrage in a public notice about the “nonchalant attitude” being used in the Airbus corruption investigations.
The Convener, Ernest Owusu-Bempah Bonsu, signed the notice, which stated that it has been more than three years since Airbus SE, a global provider of civilian and military aircraft based in France, agreed to pay combined penalties of more than $3.9 billion to resolve foreign bribery charges with authorities in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.
According to the Movement, they came from the company’s plot to use third-party business partners to bribe government officials and non-governmental airline executives all around the world.
“As part of this coordinated global resolution, the Company also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over bribes paid in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia and Ghana, and the Company agreed to pay approximately 990 million Euros equivalent (approximately $1.09 billion) pursuant to the SFO agreement.
“The PNF and SFO had investigated the company as part of a Joint Investigative Team,” the Movement noted.
It said admissions and court documents, Airbus SE engaged in and facilitated a scheme to offer and pay bribes to decision makers and other influencers, including foreign officials, beginning in at least 2008 and continuing until at least 2015, in order to obtain improper business advantages and win business from both privately owned enterprises and entities that were state-owned and state-controlled.
It said indeed, judicial records made public by British and American authorities on January 31, 2020, which Airbus acknowledges are true, show 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
“It turned out that Philip Middlemiss, a renowned British actor, Leanne Davis and John Mahama’s brother, Samuel Adam Mahama were the intermediaries between Airbus and the former President.
“In fact, per the court records, “Government Official 1″ had such a reputation as a prolific bribe-collector that within three weeks of the election of the incoming Government, and before it was sworn in, Airbus reached agreement with brother of ‘Government Official One,’ described in the US version of court documents as Individual One,” the demonstrators pointed out.
The protesters said the British court in charge of the case determined that Airbus used the payments to seek “undue favour” from a member of the Ghanaian government.
“As a result, Ghana indeed bought three Airbus C295 military transport aircraft – two in 2011 and another in 2015, all under the presidency of Mills/Mahama,” the Movement disclosed.
The UK court documents indicated, according to the notice, that the intermediaries created a company in Ghana on December 7, 2009, and a company with the same name was established in the United Kingdom in February of the following year.
The Ghanaian company they investigated was owned by Mr Mahama’s brother and a British television actor who had openly claimed to be the former President’s best friend.
“Indeed, the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, who had found the corruption suspicions credible enough to open an investigation in February 2020, announced that he had summoned four “suspects, [namely] Philip Middlemiss and his collaborator Sarah Furneaux, as well as Leanne Davis and Samuel Adam Mahama,” the Movement said.
The Movement said the current Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, has announced in a public statement that he was investigating the case, but it has been almost a year since then.
“Just last week, I personally petitioned the office of the Special Prosecutor to help the public with the status of the Airbus/Mahama case. And we’re yet to receive any response from the office of the Special Prosecutor,” Mr. Owusu-Bempah stated.
“In the light of the above, we are issuing 14 days’ ultimatum to whoever it may concern to see to it that action is taken on the Mahama Airbus corruption affair,” he noted.
“As trusting citizens, we want the Ghanaian justice system to open a thorough enquiry on the Airbus corruption because we strongly believe that former President Mahama has a lot of questions to answer,” he added.
By Ernest Kofi Adu