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 during a brief of the investigation.
However, according to OSP's report: “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.”
The report said "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.”
