Cape Town (Sapa) - Outspoken ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, removed last week as head of his party's component on Parliament's watchdog public accounts committee (Scopa), called on Tuesday for committee members to be "insulated" from party political pressure.

He was addressing a seminar on parliamentary oversight and accountability, hosted by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), in Cape Town.

"My own plea is for the development of a framework of understanding of what role a public accounts committee should be playing in a democratic Parliament . . . This could be written into the [parliamentary] rules."

Feinstein was replaced last week as head of the ANC in Scopa after party bosses intimated they felt his approach to the probe into the R43 billion arms deal was too independent.

He was replaced by ANC deputy chief whip Geoff Doidge, while party loyalists were also brought in, ostensibly to beef up the committee.

Feinstein led the ANC's support in the Scopa for Judge Willem Heath's special investigating unit to be part of the multi-agency investigation.

However, the ANC in the committee backtracked this year after opposition from party leaders, culminating in President Thabo Mbeki's refusal to include Heath in the probe.

The ANC then claimed that at no stage had it singled out any agency, which has been disputed by Scopa's chair Gavin Woods (IFP) and other opposition parties.

Scopa will meet on Wednesday to decide what was intended by its original resolution recommending the probe.

Feinstein said even if a mechanism was found to insulate Scopa members from party political pressures, the question would arise as to whether adopting an independent stance on such a committee could "jeopardise one's political future".

If this "insulating" route was not followed, "we rely entirely on the integrity of individual members to resist party political pressure".

Feinstein, who is now an ordinary Scopa member, said that he believed a public accounts committee needed to be non-partisan, and chaired by an opposition MP.

This contradicted ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni's stance, who said on Sunday: "I know of no committee in respect of the ANC, which is above party political discipline".

Feinstein said no one party should be blamed for Scopa's current controversial situation. But if its workings were subject to the short-term priorities of a political party, important issues would be avoided and "simply not come on the agenda".

Scopa has also been attacked by Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who accused it of "seriously misdirecting itself" and "arriving at decisions that are not substantiated by any facts".

In a letter to National Assembly speaker Frene Ginwala, the deputy president has urged Scopa to produce evidence of alleged malpractice in the R43 billion arms deal.

British Labour Party MP Martin Linton said that the UK parliament would regard a controversy such as the R43 billion arms deal, with the initial cost projection having grown in the same proportion - from UK29 billion to UK43 billion - as "the utmost test of Parliament's scrutiny role".

The solution in Britain would probably have been to set up a judicial commission of inquiry, Linton said. 

With acknowledgement to Sapa and WOZA.