I am writing in response to your article, Arms deal is paying off defence study, (July 23).

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) briefing that the arms deal generated more than 6700 jobs from defence industrial participation is not the good news it purports to be. This figure focuses on just one section of the arms deal offsets, the section where the creation of jobs was never in doubt.

When the joint investigating team reported to Parliament, the auditor-general undertook to audit the offsets on a regular basis. While this was done in the trade and industry department's annual report following the investigation, it has not been done since. Why not?

When the arms deal package was signed in 1999, counter-trade job figures of about 65000 were projected to result from direct and indirect defence industrial participation agreements, as well as direct and indirect national industrial participation agreements.

The bulk of these jobs were expected to come from the national industrial participation projects offered by successful bidders. The figures quoted by the ISS relate only to direct DIP .

The track record on national industrial participation is lamentable. We haven't seen anything close to the jobs and investment projected.

With acknowledgements to Raenette Taljaard (Democratic Alliance) and the Business Day.