The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has ended years of speculation by officially identifying former President John Dramani Mahama as the individual referred to as ‘Government Official 1’ in the Airbus bribery case. Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng made this announcement during a press conference in Accra on Thursday, August 8.
The Airbus scandal, involving the European aerospace giant Airbus SE, had wide-reaching implications across several countries, including Ghana. The company was accused of engaging in widespread bribery to secure lucrative contracts, particularly concerning the sale of military aircraft to Ghana during the erstwhile NDC administration. Investigations by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) revealed that Airbus employees employed various tactics, including disguised payments and luxury travel, to secure contracts in multiple countries.
According to court documents from the DOJ and SFO, Airbus paid bribes totalling over €3 million through intermediaries to influence the Ghanaian government’s decision to purchase the aircraft. A central figure in the scandal was the brother of a high-ranking Ghanaian official, who acted as an intermediary. This individual had a close relationship with ‘Government Official 1,’ who was a key decision-maker in the aircraft procurement process. Despite warnings from Airbus’s Compliance Unit about this relationship, the company proceeded with the arrangement, channelling payments through third parties to obscure the connection.
The OSP’s identification of Mahama as ‘Government Official 1’ aligns with the findings of the DOJ, which indicated that a high-ranking official who served between 2009 and 2016 played a pivotal role in facilitating the aircraft purchase. This official reportedly had direct contact with Airbus executives and significantly influenced the Ghanaian government’s decision to approve the procurement.
While Mahama’s connection to the scandal has been the subject of speculation for years, the OSP’s confirmation marks the first official acknowledgment of the former president’s involvement. Despite this identification and Airbus’s admissions, the OSP has surprisingly conceded that there is insufficient evidence to establish Mahama’s criminal culpability, underscoring the complexity of the case and the challenges prosecutors sometimes face in proving criminal intent in high-profile bribery investigations.
