The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Armscor are to be called to appear before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts to answer questions about allegations of fraud and corruption surrounding the multibillion-rand arms procurement package.
Members of the committee debated the submissions made after they let it be known that they would consider any new evidence put before them and make recommendations to Parliament.
The DTI and Armscor, the weapons procurement arm of the government, will be asked about the offset agreements made with the arms supplies, which have been alleged to be prime sources of corruption. The DTI deal with the civilian National Industrial Participation Programme and Armscor with the Defence Industrial Participation Programme.
The NPA sent a document outlining their investigators’ inquiries associated with the probes carried out by the German and British authorities. The NPA document also described some of the frustration that investigators here have had in obtaining information from the German and British inquiries.
The committee also received submissions from a number of individuals, whose offer to testify before them was turned down as, according to African National Congress (ANC) members of the committee, they brought nothing new to the table.
Arms deal bidder-turned-whistle-blower Richard Young, for example, was offering information about the extensive re-editing of the joint investigation team’s report, but Vincent Smith of the ANC said that the committee had already had a thorough investigation of that aspect a few years ago.
Pierre Steyn, a former secretary of defence, also offered to give his insights on the purchasing procedure, but Don Gumede from the ANC benches insisted that there was nothing new in what he had to say.
Paul Holden, a lawyer and former senior figure in FW de Klerk’s Centre for Constitutional Rights, was also turned down on the ground that the kind of new information he was offering ought first to be sent to the NPA, and Smith told the MPs he would not be happy with the committee having to act as a post office between Holden and the NPA. — I-Net Bridge