Cape Town Parliament's public accounts committee is considering several proposals to restructure itself, including one which would require that its chairman be elected by the entire National Assembly, rather than only by the committee itself.

The proposal, by National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala, is one of the options for the reconfiguration of the committee being discussed by a joint task team consisting of committee representatives and those from the auditor-general's office.

There is great public sensitivity relating to any tampering with the constitution of the committee which could be seen as reducing its independence.

Its independence was compromised by executive interference when the committee was dealing with the arms deal probe.

While the African National Congress (ANC) has said it endorses the current principle the chairman should come from the opposition, there is concern that the election of the chairman by the National Assembly would pave the way for the election of an ANC chairman.

Former public accounts committee chairman Gavin Woods who resigned in protest over executive interference in the arms probe, said installing an ANC chairman would totally undermine the oversight role of the committee and go against international best practice.

Even if the principle of an opposition chairman was adhered to, Woods said, their election by the assembly would make them more vulnerable to removal should they be too zealous or display too much independence.

The Democratic Alliance also expressed concern, saying the suggestion was "unworkable, unprecedented and (just) extend control" over the committee. It was also concerned that Parliament's dedicated rules committee had been sidelined from the process.

However, committee chairman Francois Beukman of the New National Party, who took over the position after Woods' resignation, insisted that the chairman would still be from a minority party. He said the aim of the task group was to improve the efficiency and quality of the committee's work.

The rationale for the proposal for a National Assembly election of the chairman is apparently that the status of the committee as a parliamentary institution with which MPs could identify would be enhanced if the person was elected by the National Assembly as a whole.

This would render the post of chairman that of a parliamentary official and the post's tenure would most probably be set over the life of the parliament.

A committee delegation led by Beukman met with Ginwala last month after the committee wrote to Ginwala about possible amendments to Parliament's rules on the apolitical nature of the chairman and the overall increase of party representation in the committee.

ANC committee member Bruce Kannemeyer said yesterday the committee was considering how to: significantly increase its size to cope with the workload; ensure the opposition party which supplied the chairman had at least one other committee member (not the case now); ensure all parties could take part in subgroups dealing with individual votes. It would ensure the nonpartisanship of the chairman.

With acknowledgements to Linda Ensor and Business Day.