Criticism 'Based on Spurious Allegations'
Response : Auditor-General's Facts Were Incorrect
 

Auditor-General Shauket Fakie has had cause to say some words in defence of his esteemed office. Fakie was prompted into action by serious allegations levelled at him and his office by the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance.

In parliament this week, the DA produced evidence which suggested that the auditor-general might have overlooked crucial evidence which might have proved that the integrity of the tender process in the multi-billion-rand arms deal had been compromised.

A letter produced before the standing committee on public accounts suggested that African Defence Systems was allowed, a day after the deadline for the tenders had passed, to drop its price in order to beat other bids for a part of the arms procurement package worth millions of rands.

The crux of the DA's allegations is that (i) the auditor-general, who investigated together with the public protector and the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, had failed to disclose to parliament that an irregularity had been found; (ii) ADS was given sight of rival companies' final offer; and (iii) ADS was allowed to alter its tender documents a day after submissions had been closed.

Fakie has dealt decisively with these allegations. He said most of the claims were factually incorrect. For instance, the letter got the date for the deadline for tenders wrong. And it could not be proved conclusively that ADS had seen the documents from other companies bidding for the same tender.

It would seem to us that the major problem here is that the tenders for the corvettes' combat suits were dealt with outside the state's normal procedures. The question is: Why was this allowed to happen in the first place?

This is what the government should answer, and this is the lesson that we hope has been learnt in this process.

We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the auditor-general, who has, until now, acted with great aplomb in dealing with all government departments.

We caution against spurious allegations, done in haste and in pursuit of cheap political point-scoring.

With acknowledgements to The Star.