Paul Kirk
The long-awaited report on South Africa’s R60-billion arms package, due out next week, is expected to blast officials for conflicts of interest, recommend a shake-up of tender procedures and criticise several of the weapons deals.
Compiled by the Scorpions, the public protector and the auditor general, the report will update Parliament on the progress of the marathon probe, while investigations continue into possible crimes linked to the arms deal.
Although the report is being kept under wraps, the Mail & Guardian has pieced together its salient features. Sources in the Office of the Auditor General said this week that several deals come in for close scrutiny and criticism.
The purchase of British Aerospace Hawk trainers was mentioned as a case that receives attention in the report. The minutes of official meetings where this acquisition was discussed are stamped “secret”, but a copy in the possession of the M&G shows how former defence minister Joe Modise led a campaign to disregard tender procedures in order to award the contract for fighter trainer jets to British Aerospace.
Sources say the report will also broach the controversial purchase of defence equipment from Schabir Shaik the brother of the army’s acquisition chief, Chippy Shaik.
Local company C2I2 was given capital by the state to develop combat suites for navy ships. However, when the contract for the corvettes’ combat suites came up C2I2 was overlooked in favour of a foreign company linked to Schabir Shaik.
Confidential minutes obtained by the M&G suggest that Chippy Shaik did not recuse himself from meetings where his brother’s company was discussed.
The report’s discussion of conflicts of interest and flouting of tender procedures could expose the state to litigation by those who lost out in the deal.
Bidders have not, until now, been able to use or obtain confidential documentation relating to the arms acquisition programme. However, the report may give those who lost out on contracts the necessary ammunition to mount lawsuits.
The report has attracted controversy before even reaching Parliament. The Office of the President and the ministers of defence, finance, and trade and industry saw a copy last month.
The chair of Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, Gavin Woods, said he was “certain” suspicions existed that the report may have been rewritten since then.
Woods said he found it strange that when Auditor General Shauket Fakie appeared before his committee on October 16 he did not mention the fact that the report had already been shown to the executive.
While the M&G could not contact the auditor general, his staff defended the report, saying it had not been tampered with or censored by the executive, but had to be shown to them for comment.
Should the committee feel the report needs clarification or explanation it could call in the various agencies that contributed to it to question them or demand further particulars.
It could also summon the ministers responsible for the arms deal to account for themselves and call for any documents it feels necessary for it to understand the report regardless of the security classification of the documents.