Home / POLITICS / Airbus saga: Why give Amidu this difficult task? – Amaliba to Akufo-Addo

Airbus saga: Why give Amidu this difficult task? – Amaliba to Akufo-Addo

By:brightwebtv.com/nana asare barimah

Abraham Amaliba

A member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress’ legal team Abraham Amaliba has described as “difficult” the task given to the Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu to probe the Ghanaian official who was allegedly bribed by Airbus between 2009-2015 in the now famous airbus military aircraft scandal.

“Why give him this difficult task, now martin Amidu has to go fishing, he must identify who is government officer 1 and then meet those people and all that. There was a reason the court did not mention names; because the said government were not heard in the trial<” Mr Amaliba said.

“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,” he added in an interview with Benjamin Akakpo on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Monday 3 February 2020.

Mr Amaliba’s comment comes after the presidency instructed the Office of the Special Prosecutor to collaborate with the U.K Serious Fraud Office to investigate the Ghanaian top official who was allegedly bribed by Airbus.

“President Akufo-Addo has taken notice of the judgment and its implications, and has referred it to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to collaborate with its UK counterparts to conduct a prompt inquiry to determine the complicity or otherwise of any Ghanaian government official, past or present, involved in the said scandal, and to take the necessary legal action against any such official, as required by Ghanaian law,” a statement from the presidency read.

Airbus admitted that a top Ghanaian official was among many officials from four different countries the company officials bribed between 2009 and 2015 in exchange for contracts, which has led to a court in Britain slapping a fine of £3 billion on the company.

A  judgment from the Crown Court at Southwark, UK, said: “The fifth count alleges  that contrary  to section 7  of  the  Bribery  Act  2010, between  1  July  2011  and  1  June  2015,  Airbus  SE  failed  to  prevent  persons associated with Airbus SE from bribing others concerned with the purchase of military transport aircraft by the government of Ghana, where the said  bribery was intended to obtain or retain business or advantage in the conduct of business for Airbus SE. 53.

“Between 2009 and 2015, an Airbus defence company engaged Intermediary 5, a close relative of a high-ranking elected Ghanaian government official (Government Official 1) as its BP in respect of the proposed sale of three military transport aircraft to the government of Ghana.

“A number of Airbus employees knew that Intermediary 5 was a close relative of Government Official 1, who was a key decision-maker in respect of the proposed sales. A number of Airbus employees made or promised success-based commission payments of approximately €5 million to Intermediary 5.

“False documentation was created by or with the agreement of Airbus employees in order to support and disguise these payments. The payments were intended to induce or reward ‘improper favour’ by Government Official 1 toward Airbus. Payments were eventually stopped due to the arrangement failing the due diligence processes required by the Liquidation Committee.”

This revelation came to light as French, British and U.S. authorities have been investigating Airbus for alleged corruption over jet sales for more than a decade.

The plane-maker has agreed to pay a record $4 billion (€3.6 billion) after reaching settlements with investigators in Britain, France and the United States to end the probe that began four years ago.

Airbus, in 2016, reported itself and asked the regulators to look at documentation about its use of overseas agents.

 

 

 

Source: classfmonline.com

 

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