NDC breaks silence on Airbus Scandal

Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has jumped to the defence of former President John Dramani Mahama on the recent Airbus scandal.

According to him, all allegations levelled against Mahama by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is absolutely false and does not reflect the approved judgements.

He stressed that the entire case was about legal infractions of employees and agents of Airbus.

Sammy Gyamfi continued that the Airbus on their own accord engaged intermediaries to help them sell military aircraft in Ghana in 2019.

He stated categorically that Airbus on their part failed to follow OECD rules to provide their intermediate. Hence, upon careful examination of the report, there was no indication in the approved judgement by the Crown Court of Southwark and District Court of Columbia that any government official was cited in receiving bribe in the Airbus scandal.

"No ex-government official of Ghana is cited in any part of the approved judgements for receiving a bribe or committing any offence. In fact, not even the unnamed government official 1 is cited in the report or approved judgement for demanding or receiving a bribe".

Mr Gyamfi reiterated that no such finding showed that Ghana violated any law on purchasing the Airbus because the proposal went through the necessary procedures, also, due diligence was done before transactions were made.



Details about the Airbus scandal

On January 21, 2020, the Crown Court of England in Southwark fined aeroplane manufacturer Airbus over £3 billion after a Differed Prosecution Agreement was reached between the Serious Fraud Office and Airbus SE, a subsidiary of Airbus, after investigations revealed the company had engaged in a scheme which involved bribing its way to lucrative contracts in countries such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Ghana.

In the case of Ghana, it was revealed that the company in a bid to obtain and maintain contracts with the government, either bribed or agreed to bribe intermediaries with close links to a high-ranking state official, who was said to have an influence over the country’s aircraft purchase plans between 2011 and 2015.