Airbus scandal: Mahama’s presidential ambition in limbo - Franklin Cudjoe

IMANI President, Franklin Cudjoe has said that John Mahama’s presidential campaign towards the December 2020 elections, will definitely take a hit following the recent Airbus corruption scandal.

Ghana, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Taiwan, have been cited as destinations where Europe’s largest aerospace multinational, Airbus, admitted that it paid huge bribes in order to secure contracts.

In the case of Ghana, the operations were reported to have taken place between 2009 and 2015; during which Mr. Mahama served as vice president and subsequently president.

The multinational company was fined £3 billion as penalties after a High Court in London found them guilty in what has been described by anti-corruption investigators as the largest ever corporate fine for bribery in the world.

Reacting to the issue, Mr Cudjoe stated that: “It will have some ripple effect. That is why we need damages to unveil all of this. It is most likely that because it was his [Mahama] administration that has been fingered in this matter, definitely his campaign will take a bit of a hit to the extent that, although he has not been mentioned in particular, it was his administration that was involved– partially as a vice president and later, a president. I’m sure he’s had to take the heat just as we are apportioning blame to the presidency when there have been several acts of corruption under this administration.”

Former President Mahama, who is yet to react to the report is currently the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), seeking to be re-elected into office after serving for over four years as president.

According to the report, “the planemaker agreed to pay the penalties on Friday after reaching settlements with investigators in the UK, France and the US to end inquiries that started four years ago,” the report stated.

Dame Victoria Sharp, who is the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, approved the settlement struck with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

She stated: “The seriousness of the criminality in this case hardly needs to be spelled out. As is acknowledged on all sides, it was grave.”

She noted that the scale of the wrongdoing demonstrates bribery was “endemic in two core business areas within Airbus."

Airbus is reported to have “used a network of secret agents to pay large-scale backhanders to officials in foreign countries to land high-value contracts."

Read below the full report on Ghana