Parliament - Public Protector Selby Baqwa on Tuesday said it was not possible to give a "ballpark figure" on the cost of public hearings into the controversial R43 billion arms acquisition programme.

Each of the three agencies involved in the probe - his office, that of Auditor-General Shauket Fakie and of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka - would contribute from their respective budgets.

Briefing Parliament's justice portfolio committee, Baqwa said a figure of R15 million had been mooted initially, but this had changed once it was clear the standing committee on public accounts would not be playing a pivotal role.

The public hearings resume in Pretoria on Monday, when Baqwa is to rule on an application by TV stations to be allowed to screen live broadcasts.

He reminded MPs the probe was being conducted in two parts - public hearings and a forensic investigation.

Because of the nature of the issue and the wide public interest, it was decided to have the public hearings as well.

Baqwa, who is leading the public hearings, said criticism had been levelled they were "a side-show". But "this team is awash with lawyers, some of them very senior".

Baqwa said his office's work was seriously hampered because it was not adequately resourced.

In the medium term expenditure framework, it had asked for a budget of R50 725 million in order to undertake all existing and envisaged activities.

However, only R29 371 million had been allocated, leaving the office with a shortfall of R21 371 million. It was busy establishing offices in all nine provinces, but "due to budgetary constraints, it would not be possible to implement fully-operational regional offices".

The budgetary shortfall also placed severe limitations on appointing much-needed key personnel.

Baqwa said his office - an institution founded under the Constitution to combat injustice and unfairness in public administration, with regional offices in six of the provinces - was currently handling an average of about 954 complaints a month.

A total of 48017 had been dealt with since he had taken up office in 1995.

Baqwa said his office had to deal with all matters received, and "I can only ask that all these difficulties be taken into account in the budgeting process".

"A typical example would be the current arms investigation, with which my office is tasked.

"It becomes difficult to budget and plan for incurring such related expenditure such as this. I therefore wish that due and proper attention would be given to my requests for additional funding during the adjustment budget hearings," he said.  

With acknowledgment to News24.