M&J: ‘Half-Baked’ Prosecutor In Town

• To Continue Dirty Work Against Ghanaian Officials Ahead of Commencement of Public Hearings by CHRAJ

The man, who presided over the ill-conceived prosecution statement of the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the matter of the Mabey & Johnson bribery allegation involving some Ghanaian officials, is in town.

Mr John Hardy QC arrived in Ghana a few days ago and is on the move delivering lectures on bribery and corruption, and money-laundering. He is also expected to meet officials of Ghana’s Commission for Human Rights & Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), which is investigating the accused Ghanaian officials.

The irony however is that even though Mr John Hardy QC brandishes an impressive profile, the mediocre prosecution statement he presided over in the Mabey & Johnson bribery allegation and the resultant unfair treatment of the Ghanaian officials accused by the British undoubtedly paints a picture of him as being intellectually dishonest.

At best, the SFO prosecution statement, which has since put the fate of Dr Sipa-Yankey and others in the balance, could be described as the handiwork of half-baked prosecutors and not people of the kind of pedigree that the world is being told that Mr Hardy has.

The SFO Chief Prosecutor came to Ghana to make his presentations and deliver lectures on the request of Danquah Institute, an ideological institute of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Before he returns home, Mr. Hardy is also expected to meet with officials of CHRAJ in this country, to as it were, continue with the ‘dirty job’ that he had helped the British SFO to perpetuate against the Ghanaian officials. Beginning with a public lecture yesterday on the platform of NPP’s Danquah Institute in Accra yesterday, Tuesday 10th March 2010, he will delivered a second lecture today Wednesday 11th March 2010 at the Busia Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon.

What The Catalyst finds difficult to understand however is as to why a man of his stature could be involved in a process that exhibited total disregard for the human rights of Ghanaian officials including Dr. Sipa-Yankey who are non-British citizens, whilst at the same time protecting to the letter the rights of the British citizens who were Directors of Mabey & Johnson at the time the British SFO and the new directors of the British bridge construction company claimed the Ghanaian officials were bribed by the former directors of the company.

There are strongly held beliefs in Ghana that the British authorities are only using the Mabey & Johnson bribery allegation as a decoy to try and muzzle the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Ghana to rescind its decision to review the questionable sale agreement of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone, a British telecommunications company, under the previous NPP government.

An obvious exposition of the dirty work done by the British SFO prosecutors against Dr Sipa-Yankey in particular is contained in the legal opinion of Owen Davies QC. He questioned the flagrant disregard to the code of conduct for barristers in British law which states that a barrister when conducting proceedings in court must if possible avoid the naming in open court of third parties whose character would thereby be impugned.

Trying to defend the indefensible, John Hardy stated on Joy FM Morning Show on Tuesday that the reason his outfit did not mention the names of the M&J Directors accused by the SFO of bribing the Ghanaian officials was that they were still under investigation.

It is interesting to note that John Hardy chose to come to Ghana only a few days to the 15th March commencement of CHRAJ’s public hearings into the case of the Mabey & Johnson bribery allegations at the behest of an NPP organisation.