John Mahama Identified As Government Official 1 In OSPs FULL REPORT On Airbus Sandal

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has released a detailed investigative report on the alleged bribery of high-ranking Ghanaian officials by Airbus SE.

The report identified former president John Dramani Mahama as the ‘Government Official 1’ in the bribery scandal but the OSP cleared him of any wrongdoing.

“The OSP confirms the identity of the following individuals. The individual described as Government Official 1 by the UK court and Individual 1 by the US court is John Dramani Mahama. He is a citizen of Ghana and was the Vice-President of Ghana from  January 7 2009 to July 24, 2012,” 

“The OSP investigation found no evidence that former President Mahama was involved or played any role in the procurement and maintenance of the agency relationship between Airbus and Foster and his associates in respect of the purchase by the Government of Ghana of military transport aircraft from Airbus.

“And it appears to the OSP that the direct communications and meetings between former President Mahama and officials of Airbus to close the deal were actuated by good intentions on the part of the former.

“It also appears that Foster and his associates became involved as intermediaries in the Airbus-Ghana deal after the decision by the Government of Ghana in preference of the C-295 aircraft. Therefore, it seems that Foster’s Airbus intermediary role at the time his brother served as the Vice President of Ghana was a case of luckless coincidence that attracted the disapproval of the UK and US authorities.

“The OSP found no evidence that suggests that the involvement of Foster as an intermediary of Airbus and the direct communications and meetings between former President Mahama and officials of Airbus to close the deal between Airbus and the Government of Ghana amounted to any corruption and corruption-related offence in respect of which the OSP has a mandate,” OSP said in a brief overview of the investigation.

According to OSP, “This report has been heavily redacted in the interest of national security – especially in respect of the correspondence and deliberations involving the Presidency, Cabinet, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defence, the Ghana Armed Forces, Airbus SE, and a subsidiary of Airbus SE.”

However, OSP's report said:  “This report has been heavily redacted in the interest of national security – especially in respect of the correspondence and deliberations involving the Presidency, Cabinet, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defence, the Ghana Armed Forces, Airbus SE, and a subsidiary of Airbus SE.”

"Further, the OSP found no evidentiary basis that suggests that former President John Dramani Mahama or any other public official was paid bribes by Samuel  Adam Foster (also known as Samuel Adam Mahama), Philip Sean Middlemiss, and Leanne Sarah Davis in respect of the purchase by the Government of Ghana of military transport aircraft from Airbus.

“Then again, the OSP found no evidentiary basis that suggests that former President John Dramani Mahama or any other public official was induced to improperly favour or did improperly favour Airbus in respect of the purchase by the Government of Ghana of military transport aircraft from Airbus.”

Attached is the full report Background of the Airbus ScandalGhana bought three Military Airplanes – C295s – from Airbus. The nation received its first C295 in November 2011. The second aircraft was received in April 2012 and the third in November 2015.

The deals covering them were argued at the time to be in line with the 2009-2012 Strategic Plan of the Ghana Armed Forces.

All three purchases, approved by Ghana’s Parliament after heated disagreements on the floor, were roundly marketed by the government of the day as a drive to modernize Ghana’s Air Force.

Funding for the first two C295s came from a euro;60,034,636 loan facility from the Deutsche Bank S.A.E.

A further euro;11,750,000 million loan from Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited was also approved by Parliament during the period for the acquisition of two DA42 MPP Guardian surveillance aircraft for the Ghana Airforce.

The House also approved a total loan sum of $105,370,177.09 from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for the purchase of an Embraer E190 jet for the country. The Embraer agreement was to cover related spare parts, and relevant accessories as well as the construction of an aircraft hangar big enough to house three large aircraft.

Before the Parliamentary approval of the loan agreements, then Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had slammed the deals as both questionable and non-transparent, adding that the contract sums had been padded by the government.

He famously tabled figures obtained from the internet to back his claims but was scorned for doing no more than relying on Google to come up with such serious claims of wrongdoing.

One of the C295s acquired under the deal supported United Nations-led missions in Mali. The rest were bought, as the Government explained at the time, to support strategic operations of the Ghana Air Force including surveillance of the country’s offshore oil production fields, border patrol, the training of pilots and internal transportation of troops.

In November 2014, then-President John Mahama had announced that Ghana planned to acquire more Military equipment, including five Super Tucanos, Mi-17s and four Z-9s, for the Ghana Airforce.

At the time, Ghanaian troops were said to have relied heavily on civilian flights for their movements and needed military aircraft to correct this anomaly. Despite opposition criticisms, the government went ahead with the purchase agreements.



.King Edward Ambrose Washman/