The National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka defended the integrity of the South African government and its institutions during his address to Parliament this afternoon on the technicalities and findings of investigations into allegations of wrongdoing in the multi-billion rand arms deal.

Ngcuka said his report, jointly compiled with the Auditor-General Shauket Fakie and Public Protector Selby Baqwa, was worthy of praise because the investigation had been proper and accurate. He added that investigations usually generate controversy and it would be unrealistic to expect everyone to totally agree with or accept its findings.

Investigations are continuing

Fakie has said that investigations are continuing.

Richard Cullen of Idasa said during an interview on SAfm this afternoon that the probe had until now centred on sub-contracts and not the main contracts. Cullen was responding to a question by the presenter who wanted to know why today's report had cleared government of all allegations of wrongdoing.

In his briefing, Fakie also said the report had shifted from being an interim report to a final report.

Fakie earlier said that the fact that three organs were collaborating and that they had had to sift through 700 000 documents had not made the investigation an easy task. Another aspect which had taken up time was setting up interviews with witnesses and their lawyers. All this had resulted in a delay in the release of the report, Fakie said.

Perception of corruption in government unfounded

Ngcuka said they had been tasked with unearthing corruption and fraud amid widespread claims and it had been necessary to separate allegations deemed to be without substance from those they considered worthy of further investigation.

Ngcuka said the allegations that had no substance included: those which suggested arms chief of acquisitions Chippy Shaik and Denel's deputy CEO Max Sisulu had received motor vehicles from a bidding company; those that implied there was a link between an arms procurement company and the Mpumalanga Parks Board; and those that stated the government was corrupt, but were based purely on speculation.

However, he said there had been areas regarding conflict of interest in respect of various role players, which, in part, related to their share-holdings.