OSP names individuals involved in Airbus scandal

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has named the individuals in the controversial Airbus scandal.

The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng mentioned John Dramani Mahama as one of the referenced individual in the UK and US court judgements that indicted the airbus company and some top government officials.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday (8 August), Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor said, “The individual described as Government Official 1 by the UK court and Individual 1 by the US court is John Dramani Mahama.”

“The individual described as Intermediary 5 by the UK court and Consultant 4 by the US court is known both as Samuel Adam Mahama and Samuel Adam Foster,” he added.

According to the OSP, John Mahama did not play any role in the scandal and found no corruption or corruption-related offence against the former president and his brother, Samuel Adam Mahama.

Agyebeng, said “after several years of investigations into the Airbus scandal, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) found that former president John Dramani Mahama who the office identified as the one referred to as government official one by the UK court, committed no corruption or corruption related offence.”

“In the estimation of the OSP, there was nothing remarkable about the deal and it certainly would not have found this way in the UK and US deferred prosecution agreements and made headlines around the world.”

“No evidence”

“This is because – without seeking to critique the UK and US DPAs – the OSP found no evidence, circumstantial or direct, which suggests that Foster and his associates were actually paid bribes and which bribes were to be transmitted to OSP REPORT ON INVESTIGATION Airbus SE 20 former President Mahama and that the bribes were actually paid to former President Mahama,” the Special Prosecutor added.

“The OSP found no evidentiary basis that suggests that former President John Dramani Mahama or any other public official was induced to improperly favour or did improperly favour Airbus in respect of the purchase by
the Government of Ghana of military transport aircraft from Airbus,” Agyebeng added.

The Airbus deal

Ghana bought three Military Airplanes – C295s – from Airbus. The nation received its first C295 in November 2011. The second aircraft was received in April 2012 and the third in November 2015.

The deals covering them were argued at the time to be in line with the 2009-2012 Strategic Plan of the Ghana Armed Forces.

All three purchases, approved by Ghana’s Parliament after heated disagreements on the floor, were roundly marketed by the government of the day as a drive to modernize Ghana’s Air Force.

Funding for the first two C295s came from a €60,034,636 loan facility from the Deutsche Bank S.A.E.

A further €11,750,000 million loan from the Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited was also approved by Parliament during the period for the acquisition of two DA42 MPP Guardian surveillance aircraft for the Ghana Airforce.

The House also approved a total loan sum of US$105,370,177.09 from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for the purchase of an Embraer E190 jet for the country.

The Embraer agreement was to cover related spare parts, relevant accessories as well as the construction of an aircraft hangar big enough to house three large aircraft.

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