Deputy Attorney General has said former officials in the erstwhile Mills-Mahama NDC administration are not cooperating with ongoing investigations into the Airbus bribery scandal.

Godfred Dame at a high-level anti-graft meeting on Tuesday described this development as was worrying.

Ghana was cited among five countries in which the European aviation giant, Airbus, paid or attempted to pay millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for contracts, leading a court in Britain to slap a fine of £3 billion on the company.

In court documents and hearings, Airbus admitted five counts of failing to prevent bribery, using a network of secret agents to pay large-scale backhanders to officials in foreign countries, including Ghana, to land high-value contracts.

President Akufo-Addo, following the ruling, wrote to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to commence investigations into the scandal.

Mr Dame said the Attorney General’s office, on behalf of the OSP has written to the British government seeking information about the identities of the Ghanaians involved in the purchase of three Airbus C-295 between 2009 and 2015.

He, however, expressed surprise that the officials involved have not come clean to the Ghanaian people about the roles they played.

Recounting lessons learned from the UK judicial system which unraveled the said scandal, Mr Dame said it was largely motivated by the “readiness and willingness of the company in question to admit the fact and to open up their purse to the scrutiny of investigators.”

This scenario has so far not played out in Ghana as the Deputy Attorney General expected.

Mr Dame told Emefa Apawu on the Midday News that: “…in this country, even the entry into deferred prosecution agreement will be quite difficult. Because of the reluctance on the part of certain persons to admit the facts. So indeed if honesty and integrity are very key, then what we have seen here so far will show that the adoption of a deferred (confirm) prosecution agreement may even be difficult.

According to him, “the facts in the Airbus Scandal were undisputed. The key government actors who engaged in the transaction are still around. I insist that there was a Vice President who later transformed into a president and he’s around still campaigning to hold public office. I am saying that in accordance with the tenets of accountability that person, even if he was not involved, ought to open up to the full facts. Because the transaction definitely occurred his supervision.”

When asked who he believed this government official was, per the facts presented by the UK court, Mr Dame said: “I was referring to the Vice President who transformed into a president, won an election in 2012, lost the 2016 election and planning to come back in 2020.”

When pressed further, as to whether he was referring to John Dramani Mahama, he responded, “absolutely, clearly.”

Mr Dame said the full legal processes will be pursued if the people involved refuse to cooperate.