The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said that the party has not bothered to respond to issues related to the Airbus SE scandal because no ex-government officials was cited in any part of the approved judgements for receiving a bribe or committing any offense.
The party said not even the unnamed “Government Official 1” (GO1) was cited in the approved judgement for demanding or receiving a bribe or for committing any offense.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Sammy Gyamfi, National Communication Officer of NDC reading between the lines of the approved judgements of the Crown Court of Southwark and the District Court of Columbia on the matter showed that the entire case was about infractions by employees and agents of Airbus and nothing more.
He said according to the approved judgements of the two courts, while the use of agents or business partners was common practice with multinational companies, Airbus failed to follow the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Conventions in appointing their business intermediaries.
Mr Gyamfi said the courts further found that payment by Airbus of success-based commission to their intermediaries was in excess of the agreed 5 per cent commission as captured in the transaction agreement.
“Whereas there have been claims that success-based commissions were paid to agents of Airbus with the intent to induce or reward improper favour by the said GO1, it is instructive to note, that, there is no indication either in the approved judgements by both courts that any such inducement took place,” he said.
He said the issues were clear when juxtaposed with facts narrated in the approved judgement of the Crown Court of Southwark with regards to countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan where the United Kingdom, Serious Fraud Office made findings on how bribes were actually disbursed to senior executives of Airline companies.
“We can state with a large degree of certainty that the UK SFO would have stated that bribes were paid to the said GO1 if they had found so in their investigations.
Instead, they carefully chose the words ‘intended to induce’ while there is no indication that this intention was actualised,” he said.
Mr Gyamfi said to the extent that the said GO1 was not cited for any offense in any of the approved judgements, his or her identity was totally immaterial, adding that any infractions arising from the engagement and payment of intermediaries by Airbus SE were entirely its business.
He however questioned President Akufo-Addo’s motive in swiftly calling for an investigation into the issue when he had ignored corrupt-related issues such as doling a whopping GH₵ 136 million for the private hotel project of his in-law, the missing excavators scandal and the missing 400 tricycles which were brought to his attention.
Mr Gyamfi said that the Akufo-Addo’s government was losing the fight against galamsey (illegal mining) since it has become a public fact that many New Patriotic Party (NPP) and government officials were engaged in galamsey now.
BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI
