In contrast to the five months in which Mac Maharaj has not uttered a word, the former minister broke his silence yesterday.

He challenged the Scorpions to lay criminal charges against him if they feel they have anything on him.

After allegations of corruption against him first surfaced in February, Maharaj's former firm FirstRand commissioned Deloitte & Touche to look into the matter.

This Deloitte & Touche report cleared him of corruption, but Maharaj was still reluctant to wholeheartedly endorse it.

"I have many reservations about the findings of the investigation team. I, however, have no intention of quibbling with them," he said.

He developed, he said, "strong reservations about the inquiry process as it developed".

One finding he took particular issue with was the contention by Deloitte & Touche that he had breached Parliament's code of ethics in 1996.

In this instance, Durban businessman Schabir Shaik had paid the hotel bill for Maharaj's family, at Orlando in the US.

Deloitte & Touche said it was "a substantial gift (the bill exceeded R15000) and should have been disclosed in the public part" of the parliamentary register of members' interests. Maharaj said he believed he paid this hotel bill himself, and so did not believe he had breached Parliament's code.

FirstRand said Maharaj was also concerned that the Deloitte & Touche team of investigators had "denied him his proper right to be heard before it arrived at its conclusions".

But Maharaj reserved particular venom for the Scorpions.

He said he was "more than unhappy" with the Scorpions, saying their job was to speed up their investigation and "if they feel they can charge, then charge me".

However, he said he remained firm in his view "that there are no criminal charges that could be made and sustained against me".

Maharaj said the documents which were the subject of the initial media reports could only have been leaked to the press by the Scorpions.

"Such leaks seriously prejudice the person being investigated and undermine the credibility of the investigating agency," Maharaj said.

Maharaj added that besides slandering him personally, leaking the information "violated the law".

"I was accused by faceless people. And none of my accusers has stood up so I can ask them why," he said.

Although FirstRand released excerpts from the report yesterday, the bank decided not to release the whole report after taking legal advice.

Advocate John Myburgh said it would be a "breach of confidence and an invasion of privacy" to publish the entire report.

Maharaj said yesterday that he would not even consider giving consent for the release of the report until the Scorpions' investigation had been completed.

With acknowledgements to Rob Rose and the Business Day.