Cape Town - The political fallout over the arms deal probe in parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) claimed another high-profile casualty on Monday.

IFP MP Dr Gavin Woods (53) has resigned as chairperson of the key watchdog committee, hoping his exit will spark a change of attitude among its members and the ANC towards parliamentary oversight of public finances.

It was now up to the IFP to decide his future within the committee and parliament, he said.

It is understood the IFP wanted Woods to postpone his decision to allow senior leaders to consult deputy president Jacob Zuma, but that Woods realised there was no turning back after his bid to salvage the committee was rejected by the ANC's majority at last week's Scopa meeting.

An IFP source said there was a clear understanding that Woods' decision was based on "conscience, integrity and principle".

He was nominated to the post by the ANC in July 1999 in line with a tradition that the committee should be headed by an opposition party MP.

Govt interfered with Scopa's work

Under Woods's stewardship the committee, in its first 18 months, exercised more extensive scrutiny and oversight over public finances than in previous periods.

Decisions were based on consensus and there was little sign of the political polarisation which later paralysed the committee after its 14th report into the Auditor-General's Review of the Strategic Defence Package was rejected by cabinet members, post November 2000.

Woods - an expert on public finance who was invited to lecture in Washington by the World Bank earlier this year - played a crucial role in drafting the Public Finance Management Act.

For almost a year after the fallout over the arms deal, Woods soldiered on in the face of increasing hostility from ANC committee members, directed at both himself and the DA's Raenette Taljaard.

His once key ally on the committee, ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, quit parliament in early 2001, citing disappointment with the way the ruling party had handled the arms deal and the subsequent investigation.

Feinstein was the arms deal's first Scopa casualty. He was demoted by the ANC for backing Woods's view that the committee had originally intended that the joint investigation into the arms deal, should include former Judge Willem Heath's special investigations unit.

Woods on Monday made two papers public, which shed light on his decision to quit as chair and give an account of the alleged interference in Scopa's work, by among others, Zuma, several cabinet ministers, former ANC Chief Whip Tony Yengeni and national assembly speaker Dr Frene Ginwala.

The second paper is an appraisal of the arms deal investigation, which he concludes was generally poor and superficial.

After the ANC leadership expressed disapproval of Scopa's arms deal report "the politics intensified and became driven by perceived political enemies and conspiracy theories", Woods writes.

"This led to the committee losing its focus and with that a dramatic loss of productivity and of work standards. This translated directly into a serious loss of scrutiny and oversight and with it the early signs of government departments losing their respect for Scopa."

In an interview, Woods said Scopa had wasted a year and that it's quality of work had sunk to unprecedented levels.

His attempts to pull the committee out of the quagmire had failed.

Initiatives included letters to the chief whips of all political parties, calling for the committee to be de-politicised, and for its members to put Parliament first before the interests of their political masters.

He had yet to receive a reply from the ANC and the NNP.

His proposal tabled at a last week's committee meeting aimed at resolving the problems was dismissed by the ANC, Woods said.

"It was a disappointing meeting in that the ANC spent considerable time criticising me as chairperson and them dismissing or rejecting all the problems identified.

"This engagement has brought me to the final realisation that because of the negative feelings the ANC component harbour towards me and their rejection of the corrections I was trying to achieve, there seems little possibility of my turning the committee around, let alone ever achieving the vision I have held of it becoming a major influence on good financial management throughout government."

In putting the committee and its importance first, the only option was for him to resign as chair effective from March 1, Woods said.

It is understood that Taljaard will also quit the committee, while speculation is rife that NNP MP and former local government MEC Pierre Uys will succeed Woods as chair in line with the co-operation agreement between the ANC and the NNP.

In terms of the accord, the NNP will among other things be given the chairmanship of some parliamentary committees.