Airbus scandal has painted Ghana ‘black’ on the international market – Gov’t

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has expressed worry over what he describes as a bad name Ghana has gained out of the recent Airbus bribery scandal that cited top Ghanaian officials who were in office between 2009 and 2015.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in stating facts of the case said between 2009 and 2015, “a number of Airbus employees made or promised success based commission payments of approximately €5 million to Intermediary 5”, who is said to be “a close relative of a high ranking elected Ghanaian Government official (Government Official 1)”.

Significantly, “Government Official 1 was a key decision-maker in respect of Government of Ghana aircraft orders”.

The payments to Intermediary 5 by officials of Airbus SE were, thus, “intended to induce or reward improper favour by Government Official 1” over the purchase of three (3) C-295 military transport aircraft. Indeed, out of the €5 million promised Intermediary 5, €3.85 million was paid between March 2012 and February 2014.

There have been wild speculations and guesses about who the persons may be especially as the period the investigations focused on, was during the administration of the late Prof. Evans Atta-Mills and John Mahama.

Reacting to the issue in an interview with Daniel Dadzie on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Oppong Nkrumah narrated how embarrassed he was as a Ghanaian when the issue came up when he recently met some international investors in the United Kingdom.

“I was in London a couple of days ago on the roadshow, it was embarrassing when you meet international investors, who during the coffee break say, ‘Oh this is very very sad. Is this what happens? You take bribes before you do deals for Ghana?’ and we were there at the table doing a deal for Ghana,” he said.

He continued, “I felt embarrassed for the UK, French, and American governments to put Ghana’s name literally out there without mentioning names and just putting some clues here and there.”

“This a matter that in reality that has a very high potential to bring our nation’s image down,” the Minister added.