It is something that simply will not go away, not if the Democratic Alliance has anything to do with it.

Yesterday, the DA made public the latest "evidence" which it said raises more questions about whether there was executive interference in the drafting of a multi-agency investigative report into the controversial arms deal.

The DA also repeated calls for parliament's watchdog public accounts committee to investigate the matter in the light of the latest information.

Both the Auditor-General and several cabinet ministers have denied previous allegations that the Joint Investigating Team (JIT) report was doctored because of government interference.

The latest weapon in the DA's arsenal is a lengthy transcript of former defence secretary Pierre Steyn's interview with arms deal investigators in 2001. Although the existence of the transcript is public knowledge, its contents were made public for the first time yesterday.

DA MP Eddie Trent said Steyn made it clear that the decision to select BAE / SAAB as preferred bidder for fighter and training jets was made in advance.

"The decision-makers and those who supported the decision-makers tried various avenues to get to presumably their predetermined choice," Steyn told investigators.

Steyn was the accounting officer of the Department of Defence until he quit in 1998.

Among the more damning allegations was Steyn's view that there was no money to buy the arms.

"If we do supply money at this scale for defence acquisition, it will have to take place at the expense of current obligations towards socio-economic obligations … So when I reminded (then Defence Minister Joe Modise) that we were pursuing a programme which appeared patently to be unfunded, he said we should not be in a hurry to let the people, parliament, know that we were pursuing something which was not funded."

Steyn said he had warned Modise against it, only to be told "do not worry, this will be done by, what is it? higher authority? Government has a strategy".

DA spokeswoman Helen Zille said the allegations made it clear there was a decision to give a contract to a particular bidder " and a reason had to be found to do so".

"All the evidence had to be contorted and manipulated to suit the political agenda," she said.

Trent said the questions and concerns raised by Steyn clearly showed that the arms acquisition process was severely flawed from the outset. "The fact these fundamental issues were largely excluded from the final JIT report demands investigation," he said.

Also in the DA's possession are two pages of hand-written notes on the covering sheet of a draft JIT report, which states : "Add to overall conclusion. The joint investigative team found no evidence of impropriety, fraud or corruption by cabinet, government or individual ministers".

"Government co-operated with the investigating team and assisted them with their endeavours".

Trent said the writer of the notes had not been identified.

Scopa chairman Fran cois Beukman (NNP) said Trent's call for a Scopa investigation would be discussed at the committee's meeting next week.

While Beukman would not comment, he noted that Scopa had decided in 2003 that further arms deal allegations would be forwarded to the director of public prosecutions.

This followed an inquiry into allegations that Auditor-General Shauket Fakie had doctored the report after interference from the executive.

Fakie was cleared by a Scopa inquiry in 2003.

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and the Cape Argus.