NDC Pops Up In Massive US$ 5 mil. Military Aircraft Bribery Case

European Aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, has confessed to paying bribes totally €5 million to highly placed government officials between 2011 and 2015 to supply military-grade aircraft to Ghana in what the British courts described as “grave criminality”.
This was during the John Evans Atta-Mills/ John Dramani Mahama administration of the now opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The bribe was a common trend paid by Airbus to officials in several other countries including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Indonesia. This has resulted in a lawsuit that has forced Airbus to cough up a considerable €3.5 billion in fines and penalties.
Whatsup News has intercepted the court judgment issued on January 31, 2020 in the United Kingdom’s (UK) Crown Court at Southwark. In the judgment, specific names of the bribe-takers were deliberately left out because the matter is still under investigation, according to Hon. Dame Vitoria Sharp, the President of The Queen’s Bench Division of the British court.
For the one who took the bribe on behalf of the said “important government official”, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) of the UK described as “Intermediary 5”. The SFO also described the recipient of the bribe as “Government Official 1”.
 
The said payment was said to be intended to induce or reward “improper favour” by Government Official 1 towards Airbus.
 
“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,” stated the judgment from the Crown Court at Southwark.
 
 
In November 2011, Ghana took delivery of the first of the aircraft involved in the scandal. They are Airbus C295 military transporters and the cost Ghanaian taxpayers over US$105 million.
 
The money was secured as a loan the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). The loan agreement apparently paved the way for a Brazilian company- Contracta Engenharia, to build the hangar for the aircraft at US$17 million.
 
 
According to the SFO investigation, a company dubbed “Company D” was the corporate vehicle that provided services to Airbus in the contract to secure the military transport aircrafts for Ghana. Incidentally, investigators realised that Company D, is actually partly owned by Intermediary 5, the close relative of Government Official 1.
 
Airbus was said to have conducted due diligence when Company D made a Business Partner (BP) application to Airbus. The due diligence revealed that the arrangement breached OECD Convention on conflict of interest, yet the deal was pushed through anyway by routing it through another Spanish company “Intermediary 8” who split the bribe with Intermediary 5.
 
The two were later embroiled in a bitter dispute after Intermediary 5 claimed Intermediary 8 owed it over €1.7 million.
 
During the NDC administration, then Vice President Mahama was reportedly in charge of military procurement, it is unclear if he had knowledge of this scandalous transaction.
 
It is also believed that before his sudden death in mid-2012, then President Atta Mills had instituted an investigation into the purchase of some military aircraft, it is unclear if this is related to the current Airbus scandal.