The Executive Director of the Media Foundation of West Africa( MFWA), Mr Sulemana Braimah has stated that the move by President Akufo-Addo to task the Special Prosecutor to investigate the Airbus bribery scandal is a step in the right direction.
Mr Braimah believes the President’s action of instructing the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to probe the Airbus scandal increases chances of achieving the desired results.
Speaking on Asempa FM, today February 3 2020, Sulemana Braimah indicated that referring the Airbus scandal to the Special Prosecutor is a good start and that the President must do same for the missing excavators, this he believes will curb corruption in the country
”I think that any steps that can be taken to unravel the truth behind the Airbus issue is very important. Corruption is one of the issues affecting the economy of Ghana and I believe if the issue has been referred to the Special Prosecutor is a step in the right direction. Also, the President must draw the mind of the Special Prosecutor on the issue of the missing excavators, I think these are all issues the Special Prosecutor must work on if we want to bring an end to corruption in the country”.
According to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, Ghana has been cited as one of five countries in which global aerospace group, Airbus SE, allegedly bribed or promised payments to senior officials in exchange for business favours between 2009 and 2015.
READ ALSO:Airbus confesses sharing bribes in Ghana as £3bn corruption fine bites
Akufo-Addo directs Special Prosecutor to probe Airbus bribery claims
In addition to Ghana, the company allegedly paid bribes to officials in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Taiwan within the same period.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, however, in its statement of fact did not name the individual Ghanaian officials because investigations were still ongoing.
With that, President Akufo-Addo has ordered Office of the Special Prosecutor for immediate investigations to the Airbus bribery scandal. In relation to a statement from the Presidency, these investigations are expected to be conducted in collaboration with the United Kingdom authorities.
However, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was in power during that period the bribes were allegedly paid, has denied the suggestions of corruption amid speculation from the public.
READ ALSO : Akufo-Addo’s Airbus probe a diversionary tactic from vanishing excavators – Asiedu Nketia
Again, a member of the opposition NDC’s legal team Abraham Amaliba has stated that the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu will struggle to investigate the Airbus controversies tasked him by the President Akufo-Addo.
Mr Amaliba said there are easier jobs the President could have given to the Special Prosecutor to work on.
”There are many easy cases that could be dealt with by Martin but you ignore that and give him such a difficult task. There many of such cases around the president but he is jumping all of them. I don’t know why he will burden Mr Amidu with such difficult jobs.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy Information Minister, Pius Hadzide, has assured that the government will take the information arising from the Airbus bribery scandal seriously.
