High drama continues as parliament's once powerful standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) battles to find its feet again and restore some of its dignity.

Battered by the arms deal saga, bereft of one of its most able members - the ANC's Andrew Feinstein, who has fled to London and a cushy job at Investec - and now rudderless with the resignation last week of Gavin Woods, the embattled Inkatha Freedom Party chairman who wanted to take the arms deal investigation further than the ANC wanted to, Scopa is a sorry sight.

But instead of putting the past behind them and getting on with their much-needed oversight role, committee members spent much of yesterday morning squabbling about who should lead them.

Leading the charge, as usual, was Raenette Taljaard of the Democratic Party (DP), who raised all sorts of questions about whether parliamentary procedures were being followed, while Vincent Smith, the ANC's leader on Scopa, appealed to all to get on with their work.

Taljaard, who is nothing if not tenacious, got her hour-long adjournment so that her party could caucus about the way forward and consult parliamentary officers about the rules.

It was eventually agreed that an interim chairman should be appointed until the Easter recess.

Although the ANC appears to remain committed to the idea of an opposition member heading Scopa, it has clearly not completed its lobbying - despite the fact that Pierre Uys, the New National Party (NNP) favourite for the job in some circles, turned up at a Scopa meeting for the first time yesterday.

The DP, which has fallen out with the NNP in national and provincial politics, threatening its proposed Democratic Alliance, nominated its own Nigel Bruce, a former financial journalist. The ANC nominated Smith.

Woods, who hadn't said a word throughout all this, voted for Bruce, as did the NNP's Adriaan Blaas. But Smith, needless to say, got the job. Boardroom politics seems tame compared with what can happen in parliament.

With acknowledgement to Business Report.