President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has tasked the Office of the Special Prosecutor to conduct an inquiry into the involvement of any public official, "past or present" who may have been engaged in the Airbus bribery scandal.
A statement signed by Eugene Arhin, the Director of Communications at the Presidency said the Office of the Special Prosecutor is “to collaborate with its UK counterparts to conduct a prompt inquiry to determine the complicity or otherwise of any Ghanaian government official, past or present, involved in the said scandal.”
"...And to take the necessary legal action against any such official, as required by Ghanaian law,” the statement added.
Ghana was named among Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Taiwan as having benefited form huge sums of bribes paid by Airbus, to secure contracts between 2011 and 2015.
Dame Victoria Sharp, who is the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, approved the settlement struck with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
She stated: “The seriousness of the criminality in this case hardly needs to be spelled out. As is acknowledged on all sides, it was grave.”
She noted that the scale of the wrongdoing demonstrates bribery was “endemic in two core business areas within Airbus".
The plane-maker was charged with five counts of failing to prevent bribery, having used a network of secret agents to pay large-scale backhanders to officials in foreign countries to land high-value contracts.
Airbus according to Section 7 of UK’s Bribery Act 2010, failed to prevent persons associated with it 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.”
Response from NDC
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was in power during the period the bribes were allegedly paid, denied the suggestions of corruption from key state actors.
The party in a statement signed by former Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong argued that media reports on the matter did not capture the true reflection of the approved judgement of the case in the UK.
“The reports alleging that Airbus SE paid bribes during the administration of President John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama are false, misleading and do not reflect the Approved Judgment. Indeed, the Approved Judgment of the Crown Court of Southwark approving the DPA between Airbus and the UK Serious Fraud Office does not allege that any payment was made by Airbus to any Ghanaian Government official,” the statement said.
“It is, therefore, gross distortion” Marietta Appiah-Oppong continued, for the “media to conclude that officials of the Ghana Government between 2009 and 2015 were bribed or paid any commissions by Airbus for the acquisition of the Casa C-295 aircraft".
Read the full statement below:
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