Pretoria: The DA has asked a parliamentary committee to include on its agenda allegations that the auditor-general made politically influenced changes while producing the final report on the arms deal investigation.

The ad hoc committee, set up to examine Auditor-General Shauket Fakie's annual report on his office and budget, is to meet on Friday.

The DA's spokesman on public accounts, Eddie Trent, believes the recent allegations cast a cloud over the auditor-general's office and that a discussion on the issue is needed.

The DA believes among the allegations that need to be considered are that, following a meeting between Fakie and President Thabo Mbeki, passages were added for the final version of the report that did not appear in the drafts. These, Trent says, include a declaration that there were no flaws in the government's contracting position and the executive was not involved in irregularities.

Among other allegations are that: objections made by several senior defence force members to the buying of Hawk and Gripen fighter planes and documented in the earlier drafts were omitted from the final version; several deviations from agreed tender evaluation procedures recorded in the earlier draft were played down or omitted from the final version: and minutes of meetings, reports of the intimidation of officials and other details were omitted or altered.

The committee had yet to see Trent's request, said its chairwoman, Barbara Hogan. "If we do receive it, we would look at the substance of the request and make a decision on that basis."

Commenting on the DA statement, Acting Auditor-General Terrence Nombembe said his office could do only what parliament as a whole requested, not a lone party.

Trent said the committee also needed to discuss the auditor-general's "vicious attack" on three opposition MPs who alleged he had tampered with the report.

With acknowledgements to Karima Brown and the Cape Times.