Auditor-General Shauket Fakie says the long-awaited report on South Africa's multi-billion-rand arms deal will be handed to National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala this week, who will then decide when to table it in parliament.

Fakie said on Sunday: "We are trying our best to be able to get it to parliament in the middle of next week or at least before recess (November 16)."

However, it was up to Ginwala when it would be made public through tabling.

Fakie described the report as "quite bulky", and said it was more than 250 pages long.

Parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) - still trying to recover from months of in-fighting over the arms deal - is due to sit during the recess to deal with the report.

The National Assembly's trade and industry, finance, defence and ethics committees were also expected to look into issues in the report.

The auditor-general is leading the forensic side of the probe into the controversial deal. The public protector and the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions are also investigating.

Scopa's draft agenda sees MPs conducting public hearings with the investigating agencies and the relevant government departments in December.

The committee could release either a final or interim report to parliament by December 18, although the agenda is still be to discussed by the political parties in the committee.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Independent Online.