Kissi Agyebeng
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has assured the new Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng that he will not hesitate to collaborate with him in big corruption-related issues that are still unresolved.
He said issues like the infamous Airbus scandal which rocked the country in early 2020 and all others outstanding, that were filed before the Office of the previous Special Prosecutor will be worked on.
The Attorney General (AG) gave the assurance when the new Special Prosecutor called on him yesterday to discuss issues affecting the anti-graft office.
He said, “I am aware that there were certain cases referred to the Office of the Special Prosecutor that have been left untouched. The Airbus scandal is one of such cases. It is unhealthy for democracy and the rule of law if such issues are not settled. It erodes public confidence. It is in the interest of the public for all the issues to be unraveled.”
Fair To All
The AG admonished the Special Prosecutor to be fair to all those who appear before him to be investigated; be able to utilise the budget for the office, and also be able to work with the Public Service for the benefit of the country.
The AG said that the Special Prosecutor working with the Public Service should not be misconstrued as an interference in the work of that office.
He said the Special Prosecutor as a matter of urgency could seek clearance from the Minister of Finance to recruit staff, but added that in the interim, his ministry was prepared to lend him some lawyers for the office to function effectively.
President’s Initiative
Mr. Dame said President Akufo-Addo took the bold initiative of ceding some of the prosecutorial powers of the Attorney General to the Special Prosecutor and it was the most important effort by any government to fight corruption and other corruption-related offences.
“It is a very important office as far as the vision of the President to fight corruption is concerned,” the AG said.
He also disclosed that Mr. Agyebeng has the required integrity and academic fortitude to do the work, and said the government was expecting so much from him.
SP’s View
In his response, Mr. Agyebeng said the office lacked resources and was soliciting the AG’s support to push for more resources for the office to function effectively.
He said the office currently has one investigator and one prosecutor, but would need more hands to be able to deliver to the satisfaction of the public.
He also said the Airbus scandal like any other issue that would be filed at his office would be investigated dispassionately.
Airbus Scandal
The global aeroplane manufacturing giant, Airbus SE, in February 2020, was fined a record three billion pounds in penalties by the UK Crown Court of Southwark, London, after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries, including Ghana.
In the United States, the damages against Airbus SE, with Case No.: 1:20-cr-00021 (TFH), was being assessed after the historic judgment at the District Court of Columbia.
UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in documents sent to court, quoted at least five million euros as payment of kickbacks to a top Ghanaian official through an intermediary who is a close relative of “a high-ranking elected Ghanaian government official” during the Mahama administration.
Clear View
In the UK Crown Court documents, the SFO named an elected NDC guru as Government Official 1 (GO1) and that powerful official was the same person referred to as Individual 1 in the US court documents.
In the same vein, Intermediary 5 (I5) in the UK court documents, who has been described as the brother of the powerful elected official in Ghana, was the same person being referred to as Consultant 4 by the US authorities.
Per both documents, GO1 or Individual 1 was not content with having I5 (his brother) handle his alleged bribe-collection arrangements and as a result, was in “direct repeated contact with senior Airbus SE executives.”
There are six key actors involved in the corruption-infested case regarding Ghana and the UK investigators from the SFO, who have lined them up as GO1 (high ranking and elected), I5 (British national and close relative of GO1), Company D (corporate vehicle for I5 – shareholder), Intermediary 6 (British national and associate of I5), Intermediary 7 (British national and associate of I5) as well as Intermediary 8 (Spanish company and front for I5).
GO1 Unveiled
In the ensuing heat, then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, said categorically that Government Official 1 was former President John Dramani Mahama and the Intermediary 5 was Samuel Adam Forster, also known as Samuel Adam Mahama, believed to be the junior brother of the former President.
Mahama Fire
In June 2020 when the political parties were gearing up for the December general election, Mr. Mahama appeared to have removed the mystery surrounding the GO1 tag scandal when he commented on the matter for the first time after news broke that Airbus SE officials paid about five million euros in bribes to a top Ghanaian leader during his tenure.
Speaking on the issue publicly for the first time, he dared the NPP government to prosecute him if they thought he had committed any crime as far as the Airbus scandal was concerned.
He had said that the Akufo-Addo-led NPP administration was only interested in doing propaganda with the Airbus bribery scandal and had no genuine interest in the case.
According to him, the posture of the NPP government on the matter showed it was not acting in good faith and was only pushing it to score political points.
Vehement Denial
He then denied vehemently that he took bribes during the transaction to procure aircraft for the Ghana Armed Forces when he was in office in spite of mounting forensic evidence against him.
“Let me state without any equivocation that no financial benefit accrued to me. Neither was there any form of inducement in the purchase of the aircraft,” he claimed, adding “my singular motivation was to equip and retool the Ghana Armed Forces in a manner that would make the discharge of their national and international roles efficient and less burdensome; and for all the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make; they do not deserve less.”
“I am happy that the said aircraft had become the backbone of the Ghana Air Force and its operations. They used it for troop transportation, logistics deployment and medical evacuation (sic),” he said.
No Invitation
Mr. Mahama then said the Office of the Special Prosecutor then headed by Martin Amidu, which had been tasked to investigate the matter, had not invited him for any questioning concerning the scandal.
It is on record that his brother, who was mentioned in the Airbus scandal as being an Intermediary in the five million euros kickback payments, was invited by the Office of the Special Prosecutor at the time but never made any appearance.
According to the former President, because the issue was referred to the Special Prosecutor, he decided not to respond to the allegations, saying, “I recognised that it was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Ghana, following the almost immediate referral to that body by the President.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu