Airbus saga: Stop hoarding scandals to release during election years – Prof. Gyampo: Ghanatoday.net

“Elections aren’t a contest of the release of scandals and hoarded videos of wrongdoings. If there are scandals and there are wrongdoings, I think it should be dealt with. If there are acts of criminalities, they should be tackled as soon as they are unearthed and discovered. Hoarding such acts only to use them or release videos of them in an election year politicises such acts and creates a severe setback for our quest to tackle corruption and grow our democracy.

…You do not understand the true meaning of democracy if you seek to win an election, unseat a government or retain political power, not through a healthy contest of well thought through ideas, but through the release of hoarded scandals. Scandal politics do not win elections.”

These were the words of political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, in response to how the opposition NDC and in effect, former President Mahama will be affected in the December elections.

According to Prof. Gyampo the release of dirty secrets of opponents in election years to gain favour of the electorate was needless and hinders the tackling of corruption in the country.

He was convinced that the recent development of the Airbus corruption case, was one of many scandals which the major political parties were going to throw at each other just to weaken the popularity of the other.

He advocated that uncovered corrupt dealings by government officials or party members be dealt with immediately they come, out rather than hoarding them to be used as arsenals in elections years.

“Once you release a scandal, the other political party who feels affected will also look for a scandal and also release just to equalise,” he averred.

The two major political parties, the incumbent NPP and the NDC have come at each other’s throats exposing misdemeanours during their government tenures.

Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace multinational, confessed to a High Court in London of paying huge bribes in order to secure contracts in Ghana, between 2011 and 2015.

The planemaker has been fined three billion pounds (£3bn) as penalties. Anti-corruption investigators, according to The Guardian Report, have described the court’s decision as the largest ever corporate fine for bribery in the world after judges declared the corruption was “grave, pervasive and pernicious.”

“The planemaker agreed to pay the penalties on Friday after reaching settlements with investigators in the UK, France and the US to end inquiries that started four years ago,” the report stated.

The Court, however, noted that Airbus “used a network of secret agents to pay large-scale backhanders to officials in foreign countries to land high-value contracts.

Several interested parties have reacted to how the development will affect the chances of the largest opposition in the country’s chances of reclaiming power in December.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has referred the case to the special prosecutor for probing

ghanaweb

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