Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), which decided last year to examine what further evidence has become available on the controversial strategic arms purchase, faced another delay on Wednesday.
MPs protested that they received their documents too late to do them justice, and have insisted on a further postponement of discussions until next week.
With the likelihood of a sudden halt to Parliament’s activities being imposed when the president announces a date for this year’s general election, opposition MPs fear that nothing will be done before the polls and that afterwards a whole new committee will be put in place.
One solution that is being canvassed is for the committee to pass a resolution that requires its successor committee to take up the cudgels again.
Richard Young, a disappointed bidder when the arms deal was first signed, has again signalled his willingness to give evidence to the committee. In a letter circulated to the committee by Democratic Alliance MP Eddy Trent, Young said he believes he has extensive knowledge and personal experience of the arms deal, and he added that he has accumulated a substantial collection of arms-deal-related documentation.
”Much of this documentation has not been previously ventilated in any way,” he said, ”and indeed I believe that much of this documentation was not available to the joint investigation team during its October 2000 to November 2001 tenure.”
Trent, however, is one MP who has made it clear that he will not in any case be returning to the National Assembly after the election. — I-Net Bridge