Parliament’s select committee on public accounts (Scopa) will today deal
with documents proving that the draft report of the joint investigation on the
arms deal by the Scorpions, public protector and former auditor-general Shauket
Fakie was extensively modified before being released.
The documents were forwarded to Scopa by
electronics engineer Richard Young, whose bid to participate in the arms
deal was thwarted and who won R15million in a claim against the government.
Scopa is currently reviewing evidence that has become available on the
controversial strategic arms purchase.
Fakie’s original conclusions that pointed to
serious problems with the deal were removed from the report that was made public
after it was reviewed by cabinet.
Though Fakie found that the arms deal was
riddled with irregularities, the government’s final report absolved
cabinet ministers of any wrongdoing.
The government then claimed the report had been
edited only to make it more user friendly *1. But the documents to be
presented in Parliament will show that the sanitised report had deleted hundreds
of pages of evidence and conclusions about wrongdoing in the deal.
The original report said about former defence minister Joe Modise: “The minister
could have influenced decisions made by certain role players during the process
to select BAe-Saab as the preferred bidder for the Gripen and Hawk Aircraft.”
This sentence disappeared in the from the modified version, and replaced by:
“The visionary approach suggested by the minister was accepted and implemented,
causing the selection of BAe-Saab as a preferred bidder.”
The auditor-general’s original report to the president reads: “There were
fundamental flaws in the selection of BAe-Saab as the preferred bidder for the
[lead-in fighter trainer, the Hawk] and [the advanced light fighter aircraft, or
Gripen] programme.”
With acknowledgements to
Anna Majavu, Joel Avni and Sowetan.
*1No, Shauket Fakie CA(SA)
and Selby Baqwa SC then claimed the report had been edited only to make it more
readable and use friendly.
They forgot to tell Parliament that the AG;s 741 page report was discarded and
replaced in the final report by a 188 page "executive summary" and extensive
changed and dissemble at the same time.
This People of the South, is fraud.
One of the current charges against Jacob Zuma id fraud for lying to Parliament
by providing a false and evasive answer to a formal Parliamentary question.
In this case Fakie, Baqwa and Ngcuka were asked on at least four occasion
whether there were any changes to the draft report after it had been provided to
Pinnoccios Mbeki, Erwin and Lekota, inter alia, for their review. On each
occasion they lied point black that there were no substantial changes.
In fact, their conduct was far worse than Zuma's.
Zuma was only trying to protect his own backside.
Fakie et cie were trying to protect the backsides of their principals.