Cape Town. Gavin Woods, who has found it increasingly difficult to keep his politically divided parliamentary public accounts committee on course, issued a clarion call yesterday for political parties to reconsider the committee's composition and structure.

Woods sent letters to this effect to committee members and the chief whips of all the political parties yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to salvage it from political dissent.

The committee, once a powerful instrument of parliamentary oversight over the executive, became compromised by outside interference during the probe into the R43bn arms deal. Woods found it increasingly difficult to perform his role as chairman and it is likely he will leave if there is no improvement in the way it functions.

There have been rumours that the African National Congress (ANC) wants to force him out without the political embarrassment of appearing to be doing so, but ANC public accounts committee spokesman Vincent Smith denied this yesterday. He said the party supported the principle of an opposition party member occupying the chair.

In his letter to the chief whips, Woods said the "disruptive problems" over the past 14 months would continue to undermine the committee's performance unless corrected. He called on political parties to assign members with "an interest in public finance matters and whose personal political ambitions are not all-consuming".

Woods pointed out that past ANC members of the committee included Reserve Bank deputy governor Gill Marcus, Deputy Justice Minister Cheryl Gillwald, New Africa Investments Ltd CE Saki Macozoma, finance committee chairwoman Barbara Hogan and Midi CE Marcel Golding.

He believed the purposefulness and commitment shown by the previous committee "was attributable to its collective objectivity, its intolerance of that which was wrong and its level of related expertise".

Woods also appealed to parties to encourage committee members to improve their "technical competence" in matters of public finance, thereby lessening their "inappropriate dependence on the auditor-general's office".

In his letter to committee members, Woods said the committee needed to be depoliticised and a culture of mutual respect should be cultivated. He proposed doing away with the subcommittee structure, which some members suggest has allowed the ANC to hijack the committee's work. Woods called for significant increases in productivity and expertise, saying the quality of the committee's work had deteriorated.

He also asked that he "be allowed no less authority and initiative than that of the chairpersons of the other parliamentary committees and that members respect the fundamental principle which underpins the decision to have an opposition chairperson".