Auditor-General Shauket Fakie on Wednesday hit back at claims of editing and omissions in the final report of the arms deal probe, labelling them unfounded and, at times, biased. In a lengthy special report, tabled in the National Assembly, he suggests some MPs have transgressed rule 66 of Parliament by casting aspersions on the integrity and dignity of the AG's office.

They may also have been misled by inaccurate media reports. "I am concerned that there has been an effort by certain individuals to discredit me and my office. "Allegations are based on insufficient and inconclusive evidence during a period when sensational reporting by the media was rife. "Based on the evidence at my disposal, I stand by the JIT (Joint Investigating Team) report tabled in Parliament in November 2001."

Fakie called on Parliament to protect the honour of the office of the AG -- an independent institution protected by the Constitution. He was responding to claims the final report of the probe into the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal was "heavily edited" or "doctored" before being presented to Parliament.

The arms deal was investigated by the AG, the Public Protector and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, who found no evidence of unlawful conduct by government. Fakie has since come under fire for reported "discrepancies" between a draft report submitted to the executive and the final report, prompting calls from the opposition for the probe to be re-opened.

The AG said wide-ranging accusations had been made in the media, alleging the final report had been sanitised, possibly at the insistence of senior members of government.

However, detailed responses refuting these reports were not covered with the same vigour, and were, at times, ignored. Fakie stressed the very nature of a draft report meant it could be changed, and pointed out that the final document was a consolidation of three investigations. "

The consolidation of the three reports into a single joint report dictated the elimination of duplication and technical details, specifically with a view to condensing the reports into a user-friendly format, a time-consuming effort." It should be obvious to anyone reading the final report and draft reports carefully that there was there was no intention to omit information. Regarding the allegation that all reference to gifts received by certain officials had been taken out of the final document, he said it was made clear in the report this was still under investigation.

The issue of gifts received was to be investigated by the Scorpions, the final report says. "What it means is that I and my fellow investigators decided that, as matters came to our attention which required further investigation, we would refer these to the Scorpions and thus not include them in the report." Allegations had also been made that references to gifts were removed to protect senior officials, despite those persons being implicated in other chapters of the report.

On claims that the executive had exerted influence on him to edit the report, Fakie said although legislation required him to consult with the president and responsible ministers, he had never said the document had been limited as a result of the consultation process. This, he said, was contrary to newspaper reports stating that he had "no choice" but to limit the final document.

Fakie quotes, at length, various "unfortunate" statements made by the Democratic Alliance's Raenette Taljaard and Dr Gavin Woods of the Inkatha Freedom Party regarding the conduct of his office. Taljaard is the DA's former spokeswoman on the standing committee of public accounts (Scopa), while Woods was the committee's chair, and was at the forefront on moves to have the arms deal investigated. "It is under these circumstances that I rely on Parliament to protect the integrity and honour of the office of the Auditor-General as a constitutional institution," he said.

Scopa is due to consider Fakie's response after the upcoming parliamentary winter recess.

With acknowledgements to Gordon Bell and Sapa.