Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has said he is not interrogating former President John Dramani Mahama in connection with the Airbus scandal because he is the presidential candidate of the biggest opposition party in the country in the upcoming elections.
In his corruption risk assessment report of the controversial Agyapa Royalty deal, the Special Prosecutor also identified ‘Government official 1’ in the Airbus scandal to be Mr Mahama.
Parts of the report said: “This Office has established the identity of elected Government official 1 to be former President John Dramani Mahama, whose brother of the full blood is Samuel Adam Foster, also known as Samuel Adam Mahama.
“The only reason the former President has not been invited for interrogation (in spite of all threats from some of his followers and lawyers) is the fact that he got himself an insurance as the presidential candidate of the other largest political party in Ghana and prudence dictated that the interrogation be held in abeyance during this election season.
“The former President has also not offered to make any voluntary statement to this Office despite the publication of an alleged interview containing admissions purportedly made by the former President to a Daily Graphic reporter without the full voice recording, which, in the meantime, remains just hearsay”.
Airbus saga
A judgment from the Crown Court at Southwark, UK, indicted Ghana alleging that contrary to section 7 of the UK’s Bribery Act 2010, Airbus failed to prevent its close associates or persons associated with them 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 advantages in the conduct of business.”
The document stated that the bribery allegation took place between 2009 and 2015 where the European aviation giant engaged the services of a close relative of a high-ranking elected Ghanaian government official who served as an intermediary to facilitate the sale of three military transport aircraft to the government of Ghana.
“A number of Airbus employees knew that the intermediary 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”, the document continued.
Also, the document pointed out that “false documentation was created by or with the agreement of Airbus employees in order to support and disguise these payments. The payments were intended to induce or reward “improper favour” by Government Official 1 toward Airbus.
Payments were eventually stopped due to the arrangement failing the due diligence processes required by the Liquidation Committee.