The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has rebuffed claims that investigations into the Airbus Saga would have proven official 1, Former President John Dramani Mahama guilty of bribery if it had sought detailed correspondence with UK and US judicial and investigative officers.
The Communications Wing of the New Patriotic Party and the Ernest Owusu Bempah led Fixing the Country Movement, have described the exoneration of Mr. Mahama and his brother in any allegations of bribery concerning the purchase of some military transportation aircrafts from Airbus, as shoddy.
The Fixing the Country Movement has consequently made demands including a public enquiry and a reinvestigation of the allegations insisting court documents from the United States of America and the United Kingdom pointed to bribery against the two, their associates and assigns.
In a written response forwarded to the Ultimate FM Breakfast Team, the OSP’s Director, Strategy, Research & Communication Samuel Appiah Darko pointed the critics to relevant portions of the OSP’s comprehensive report which answers all the questions raised in their media engagements.
“The OSP thoroughly reviewed and analysed the UK and US judgments, which are reproduced in detail in the OSP report. The individuals investigated by the OSP have not faced charges or trial for bribery in nearly 4 or 5 years and were not included in the DPA. The DPA only contains Airbus’s responses,” the statement noted.
On
the allegations of bribery, the OSP contends that no authority of the courts
nor the Serious Fraud Office have provided a shred of evidence to support the
claim that resulted in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Airbus.
“The OSP engaged with foreign investigative and prosecutorial authorities
through the mutual legal assistance framework, requesting evidence from UK and
US authorities, that led to their bribery conclusion. In four and a half years,
no evidence has been provided to the OSP, with authorities repeatedly referring
the OSP to the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Airbus.”
“There is no actual evidence (direct or circumstantial) of bribery. In April
2022, the UK SFO wrote to the individuals that they would not be prosecuted.
And that the SFO may change its mind if it finds new evidence. It means that
the UK and US authorities do not have the evidence to prosecute any person. No
person has been prosecuted till date,” the statement added.
The statement further cautioned the country against attempting to treat the
Office of the Special Prosecutor as subservient to prosecutorial and investigative
bodies of other countries especially when the OSP took the pains to go beyond
the court documents to find and interrogate persons cited in the Airbus Bribery
debacle.
It warned, “The issue isn’t about which investigative authorities are superior.
We shouldn’t belittle our investigative bodies or assume they’re inferior to
foreign counterparts.”
“The US and UK investigations focused solely on Airbus’s perspective and did
not involve questioning the individuals concerned. The OSP’s investigation was
more comprehensive, as it tracked and questioned the individuals involved.
Concluding bribery solely based on Airbus’s testimony is flawed,” the OSP
elucidated.
Clarifying purposes for which Samuel Foster Mahama received payments regarding
the transaction, the OSP explained that the said amounts advanced were
consistent with Airbus’ commissions awarded to its agents and commercial
partners on successful execution of sales campaigns.
“The arrangement between Airbus and JM’s brother was an agency agreement
involving a success-based commission for the sale of planes. The arrangement
was an agency agreement between Airbus and agents referred to as Business
Partners.”
“Typically, Airbus paid its business partners a 5% commission based on the cost
of the planes. For example, if a plane cost $20 million, the commission would
be $1 million. This same arrangement applied to JM’s brother, who acted as an agent for Airbus. The two planes involved were highly expensive military transport planes, so the significant amount paid by Airbus to JM’s brother represented 5% of the total cost of both planes,” the statement elucidated.
Meanwhile the Fixing the Country Movement has served notice it will begin a series of public expressions if the president Nana Akuffo-Addo does not reconstitute a reinvestigation into the saga.
According to the group, the special prosecutor failed to take advantage of a golden opportunity “to draw a final line under the darkest chapter of the Mahama years”.