Airbus Scandal: Agyebeng Did A Shoddy Job …Says FixingThe Country Movement

Fixing the Country Movement, a non-partisan and non-political civic movement, has registered its displeasure over what it described as a shoddy investigation carried out by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to clear former president John Dramani Mahama of any corruption-related offences in the Airbus corruption saga.

According to the group, the OSP erred in law in its judgement on the matter, and has called for an immediate revisit of the matter in the interest of the public and governance accountability, since Mr. Mahama and his brother Adam Mahama have a lot of questions to answer.

The group further called on other relevant authorities to institute a public inquiry into the Airbus alleged corruption and to afford former President John Mahama the opportunity to defend himself in the full glare of the public.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Sunday, August 11, 2024 the Convener of the group, Mr. Ernest Kofi Owusu-Bempah Bonsu, expressed surprise over the OSP’s “calculated” effort to whitewash the entire process, even when Airbus had already accepted the complicity of its officials, hence the deferred prosecution agreement by the US Department of Justice and the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

The leadership of the group has, therefore, issued a 14-day ultimatum to the OSP to reinvestigate the entire bribery deal.

Should the OSP default by the end of the 14-day ultimatum, Fixing the Country Movement says it will organise a public action to demand the head of the OSP.

According to the group, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, has reduced his office to more of a political theatre and reputation management for Mr. Mahama.

The Convener of Fixing the Country Movement disclosed that it has been over three years since Airbus SE, a global provider of civilian and military aircraft based in France, agreed to pay combined penalties of nearly $4 billion.

Mr. Owusu-Bempah stated that beginning in at least 2008 and continuing until at least 2015, Airbus engaged in and facilitated a scheme to offer and pay bribes to decision makers and other influencers, including foreign officials, in order to obtain improper business advantages and win lucrative contracts in several countries, including Ghana.

He accentuated judicial records made public on January 31, 2020 by the British and American authorities, which Airbus acknowledged to be true, showing 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 to Ghana.

The pressure group indicated that the former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu, who had found the Airbus corruption credible enough, opened an investigation in February 2020 and further summoned four “suspects,” Philip Middlemiss and his collaborator Sarah Furneaux, as well as Leanne Davis and Samuel Adam Mahama.

The pressure group established that the OSP inquiry into the Airbus corruption was, therefore, to get the culprits to answer the charges against them and not to engage in whitewashing as he has done.