Linking Mahama to Airbus scandal premature – Vituz Azeem

Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem has described as premature, attempts to link former President John Dramani Mahama to the recent Airbus bribery scandal.He argued that it will be too early to accuse the former President when investigations are still ongoing.

Ghana has been cited as one of five countries in which global aerospace group, Airbus SE, allegedly bribed or promised payments to senior officials in exchange for business favours between 2009 and 2015, according to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

In addition to Ghana, the company has confessed that its agents allegedly paid bribes to officials in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Taiwan within the same period.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, however, in its statement of fact did not name the Ghanaian officials because investigations were still ongoing.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has since referred the Airbus bribery scandal to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for investigations.

Even before the Special Prosecutor’s office begins its investigations, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Monday, accused Mr. Mahama of being “the elected government official 1” named in the Airbus bribery scandal.Mr, Vitus Azeem said it was too early for the NPP to draw such conclusions.

“It is too early because once you use an intermediary, there is no guarantee that even if that promise was made, the money would have gone to the person that is the decision-maker and when you talk about procurement, it is not necessarily the President himself that is involved in procurement.

They [NPP] would want to do that because we are in an election year but I think it is too early. Once the President has asked that it should be investigated, they should wait for it to be investigated,” Vitus Azeem noted.

Can Special Prosecutor handle Airbus bribery case?

The former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative also cast doubts over the Special Prosecutor’s ability to investigate the case.

“There is no guarantee that the Special Prosecutor has the capacity and will go out for investigations and you will remember that some time ago the Special Prosecutor mentioned that in 2020 because it is an election year if he does certain investigations he is likely to be accused of bringing some partisanship in it so that is another thing we cannot be sure of.”

EOCO, others must partner Special Prosecutor to probe Airbus scandal – Majority Leader

In a related development, the Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has suggested that the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), Attorney General’s Department, Auditor-General’s Office and other state agencies with investigatory powers to partner with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the Airbus bribery scandal.

The Majority Leader, who raised concerns over the deal when it was brought before Parliament in 2011, noted that the Special Prosecutor will do a better job with the help of other state security agencies.

Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said, although “the Special Prosecutor is competent enough” to probe the issue, a collaboration with the Attorney General and other security agencies will not be bad.

“If EOCO can also assist the Special Prosecutor because you see the Special Prosecutor can only prosecute when he is furnished with the relevant information. And so I think in this case, the Attorney General’s department, the Special Prosecutor’s office, the EOCO, BNI and the Auditor-General should combine efforts,” he added.