The Auditor-General, Shauket Fakie, is to make a statement at 7.15pm today about the R60-billion arms deal, his office has announced.

The announcement last night has led to speculation in political circles that Fakie - who has been under opposition fire for exonerating government of misconduct without carrying out a thorough investigation - might announce his resignation.

There has been controversy since the disclosure last week that information included in the draft reports on the investigation into the arms deal was edited out of the final report.

"It is time the auditor-general came clean," said Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, who blew the whistle about possible irregularities in the handling of the arms deal.

"I hope (Fakie) can admit he made a mistake. There is a difference between editing and changing the substance of the report."

Fakie was ordered by the high court in March to hand over all drafts of the arms report to Richard Young, managing director of C2I2, which bid unsuccessfully for the contract to supply combat suites for the corvettes to be built for the navy.

Fakie reportedly handed over 200 of about 700 pages of records he said he had in his possession.

With acknowledgement to John Battersby and the Cape Times.