Weekend news reports that the joint investigating team into the arms deal was unaware that certain confidential documents were in Parliament's custody were inaccurate, National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala and the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions said on Monday.

They were referring to a Sunday Times report that defence force chief of acquisitions Shamin "Chippy" Shaik had secretly handed classified government documents to Dr Gavin Woods, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

This prompted an invesgtiation that led to Shaik's suspension and the arrest of his brother Schabir, the newspaper said.

National Director of Public Prosecutions publicist Sipho Ngwema said on Monday that he was misquoted by the newspaper and that the arms investigators had looked "at all the documents that we were interested in".

The newspaper said Ngwema had slammed Woods for "concealing" information that would have helped the investigators.

In a statement, Ginwala said documents relating to the deal were first released to Woods - as Scopa chair - by Armscor and the ministry of defence.

"The documents were identified as confidential and were released with a request that circulation be limited to Scopa members and that their confidentiality be honoured.

"When I was subsequently advised by Dr Woods that such documents had been made available and that they were in his possession, a secure facility was immediately established in parliament and Dr Woods was requested to place the documents in parliament's custody." This was done on February 6.

Shaik had written to Woods, indicating that the provision of documents to parliament had not been authorised and requesting their return, Ginwala said.

"Dr Woods discussed the request with me and it was agreed that he would respond indicating why, based on legal advice, the documents could not be returned immediately.

"Subsequently, at a meeting with the heads of the Joint Investigating Team, they requested access to documents in Parliament's possession." A list of the documents was made available to them.

Documents in the public domain would be provided and the investigators indicated that they would themselves obtain the confidential documents from source, Ginwala said.