Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice in the erstwhile John Mahama government, Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, has said that reports alleging that Airbus SE paid bribes during the administration of President John Evans Atta Mills and John Mahama are false, misleading and do not reflect the Approved Judgement.
According to her, the Approved Judgement of the Crown Court of Southwark approving the Deferred Prosecution Agreement(DPA) between Airbus and the UK Serious Fraud Office does not allege that any payment was made by Airbus to any Ghanaian government official.
"It is, therefore, a gross distortion for the media to conclude that officials of the Ghana Government between 2009 and 2015 were bribed or paid any commission by Airbus for the acquisition of the Casa C-295 aircraft," a statement signed the former government official said.
Background
Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace multinational, has admitted paying huge bribes in order to secure contracts in Ghana, under the erstwhile Mills-Mahama administration.
Airbus was found guilty by a High Court in London and is to pay a fine of 3 billion pounds (£3bn) as penalties. Anti-corruption investigators according to The Guardian Report, has described the court's decision as the largest ever corporate fine for bribery in the world after judges declared the corruption was “grave, pervasive and pernicious.”
The Serious Fraud Office's (SFO’s) investigation related to bribery offences in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia and Ghana. The PNF’s investigation related to bribery and corruption offences in China, Colombia, Nepal, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia (Arabsat), Taiwan and Russia.
The joint investigation team (JIT's) investigation was vast in scale and in scope. It covered all of the BPs engaged by the Airbus divisions until 2016 - more than 1,750 entities across the world. The JIT focussed particularly on about 110 BPs for which red flags had been identified, from amongst which the JIT selected several investigation priorities.
The French Parquet National Financier (PNF) focused its investigations on Airbus and/or its divisions’ conduct in the United Arab Emirates, China, South Korea, Nepal, India, Taiwan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, and Kuwait.
The SFO focused its investigations on Airbus and/or its divisions’ conduct in South Korea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Taiwan, Ghana, Colombia and Mexico. Within this scope, the PNF and SFO selected a representative sample of the markets and concerns involved.
Ghana under late President John Atta-Mills in 2011 and former President John Mahama in 2015, acquired three Airbus C295 planes from the company as part of an effort to augment and modernize the fleet of the Ghana Armed Forces.
It emerged that the first order of the military aeroplane arrived in the country on November 17, 2011, followed by a second on March 19, 2012. The last order arrived in the country on December 4, 2015.
President John Dramani Mahama, in November 2014, announced that Ghana was to acquire an additional C295, in addition to other aircraft, including five Super Tucanos, Mi-17s and four Z-9s.
A total of about $150 million was spent in acquiring all the three aircraft, one of which overshot the runway recently. Ghana's Ministry of Defence stated that the accident happened because the aircraft had not gone for its scheduled maintenance.
See attached for full SFO VRS AIRBUS Judgment.
Former Attorney General Rebuffs Reports on Airbus Bribery Claim
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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Bogus statement by former AG..... We can all read the judgement for ourselves. Mahama is greedy and corrupt.... He killed Prof Mills because he was being investigated for taking bribe in this Airbus deal..... We know him very well. He took ford bribe from Kanazoe. Cheap man.
Madam Brew Sorry ok ? You ve been given a very Herculean task .... ie to paint Mahama white in d midst of this mess !!
Oh madam at least we can read and understand. This is why NDC does not like FREE SHS where everyone can read, write and understand!
you guys are not the only lawyers in Ghana. We understand the full details of the judgement. I believe President Mills would not have collected any bribe money. As for John and his brother, it is very clear that they collected the Euro5m. If he is confident he didn't collect any bribe he and his brother go to London and clear their name by suing for disclosure of the names of those being referred to in the judgement. When he was asked by the BBC journalist if he had taken bribe before, he couldn't answer.
To settle this issue A COPY OF THE JUDGMENT MUST BE PUBLISHED for all to read for ourselves instead of accusations and counter accusations for parochial political agenda. This letter is nothing as well as the documents circulating on social media against the Mills/Mahama government. You can get a lawyer in the case to clarify the judgment instead this letter. This is a serious matter that should not be left to run just like that because if can jeopardize the bright chances of John Mahama beating Nana addo in the next election. Perception of corruption is what sent the NDC to opposition and if they allow this without getting those involved in the case to come out and set the record straight, between now and December, that is all some unscrupulous persons will sing. Already Franklin Cudjoe and co have started commentary on this. John Mahama himself can also come out and debunk any wrongdoing.
EEEi! Mahama, ANIMGUASEE Akaaba!!!
In your statement, you say the approved judgement does not allege any payment of bribes. You should have gone further to tell us what the judgement said, rather than conclude that the issue was distorted. You should counter the distortion with the facts, and not simply brush it off and expect us to take it. Please come again.
Master, we too are lawyers. She did a similar things to get Woyome free but didn’t wash. Your JDM should bow his head in shame
You see how intelligent and learned people reason?! Vulture journalism is what has made it difficult to glean information from Ghanaian newspapers for research!!! They’re too full of partisan LIES!!!