Cape Town — The African National Congress (ANC) wants to exclude the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) from the chairmanship of Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts.

It is a tradition that an opposition party member chairs the important oversight committee. The position became vacant last month when chairman Francois Beukman, along with other New National Party members, joined the ANC.

ANC sources said yesterday the party remained committed to ensuring that one of the minority opposition parties took over the position. However, it would not be given to the DA.

The public accounts committee plays a vital role in holding government departments to account. It puts the spotlight on their financial management practices to ensure that government funds are spent in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act.

The DA said yesterday that refusing to give the position to the official political opposition violated a democratic principle widely accepted in developed and developing countries alike.

Since Beukman’s resignation in mid-September, meetings of the public accounts committee have been cancelled four times, apparently because the ANC is in a dilemma as to which candidate to support. The committee has not met in five weeks.

“They are obviously having problems,” said DA public accounts representative Eddie Trent.

The DA’s other committee representative, Anchen Dreyer, said there were vital issues the committee needed to address, such as the Oilgate scandal that saw public funds flow to the ruling party. These were being put on hold “while the ANC decides who it should appoint as chairman”, she said.

The ANC could be waiting for the outcome of Monday’s meeting of opposition parties to decide on the division of minority party representatives on Parliament’s portfolio committees.

This follows an ANC move to reduce the number of committee members from 17 to 13 with the ANC having eight, the DA two, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) one and other minority parties two.

The IFP’s representative on the committee is Hennie Becker, but he is not considered a likely candidate for chairman.

National Democratic Convention MP Gavin Woods, a former public accounts committee chairman who spearheaded the arms deal investigation, wants and is likely to get a seat on the committee because of his experience. However, Woods said he had gathered that the ANC was “totally resistant” to the idea of him becoming chairman.

“The chances are so remote as to be improbable,” he said.

Woods said he would second the DA’s nomination of Trent, for many years chairman of the Eastern Cape legislature’s public accounts committee.

Past minority party members on the committee have been the United Democratic Movement’s George Madikiza and the United Christian Democratic Party’s Bafitlhile Pule, neither of whom is regarded as having the expertise for the job.

With acknowledgements to Linda Ensor and the Business Day.