PRETORIA: Disgruntled defence contractor Richard Young has had more than one "deep throat" feeding him classified documents he used to raise doubts about the arms deal, the public hearing are told.

Young was being cross-examined by Shane Dwyer on behalf of the German Frigate Consortium, which won the contract to build four corvettes for the SA Navy.

Dwyer wanted to know why Young had deleted only certain documents he had referred to in his testimony of the past three days.

"Because they came from different sources, "Young said.

Dwyer commented: "So, you had two deep throats".

He said one crucial document cited by Young was an early draft that had been stolen in a burglary.

"I was not involved in the sourcing of the documents," Young retorted.

Young is the managing director of Communications Computer Intelligence Integration Systems (CCII), a Cape Town based defence information technology company.

He contends there were irregularities in the awarding of aR40 million tender for information management systems used in the four corvette ships South Africa bought a s part of the arms package.

CCII had been named the preferred supplier of these systems, Young claims.

In the end the tender had, however, been awarded to French company Detexis. Detexis is the sister company of African Defence Systems (ADS, of which arms acquisition head Chippy Shaik's brother, Schabir, is a shareholder and director.

Young was later extensively questioned by Puke Maserumule, for Armscor, about the origin of the classified documents he had used.

Young responded that he was virtually certain the source was not in the arms procurement agency.

He said he had provided forensic investigators of the arms deal with full details of the origin of the documents.

"It was surprising that the documents were given to me, and I was surprised at their contents. The person who gave it to me did not know what they contained."

Young said he had not asked for the information.

The hearings continue today, when evidence in rebuttal will be heard from, among others, retired Chief Rear-Admiral Robert Simpson-Anderson.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Argus.