Statement Issued by Eddie Trent MP

DA Spokesperson on Public Accounts

Release: Immediate

31 January 2005

With the Ad Hoc Committee on the Auditor-General scheduled to meet this Friday, I have today written to committee chair Barbara Hogan MP to request that she include on its agenda recent allegations that the Auditor-General made politically influenced changes to the draft report on the Arms Deal. At present the meeting is only set to discuss the committee report and the budget of the A-G's office. However, the DA believes that with the current cloud hanging over the Auditor-General following recent media reports, a way forward in dealing with these allegations must be discussed.

Allegations that need to be considered include claims that :

following a meeting between himself and President Mbeki, passages were added in the final version of the report which do not appear in any of the earlier drafts. These passages include a declaration that there were no flaws in the government's contracting position, and that the executive had not been involved in irregularities;
objections of several senior defence force members to the buying of Hawk and Gripen fighter planes documented in the earlier drafts of the report were removed in the final version;
a number of deviations from agreed tender evaluation procedures recorded in the earlier draft were either downplayed or omitted in the final version; and
minutes of meetings, reports of intimidation of officials, and other details were also omitted or altered from the earlier drafts.

The fact that the A-G was only willing to make the earlier drafts of the Arms Deal Report available for public scrutiny when threatened with contempt of court charges also needs to be considered. Similarly, his unprecedented step of tabling a special report to Parliament viciously attacking 3 opposition MPs for suggesting he had made changes to the Arms Deal investigation report needs to be addressed. If the above allegations that he did indeed make changes are true, it will mean he has misled parliament.

Section 55 (2) (b) (ii) of the Constitution states that Parliament must provide mechanisms to maintain oversight of any organ of state. This year a new committee to oversee the Auditor-General will be formed in accordance with section 10 (3) of the Public Audit Act, 2004, however until such a time as it does, it is the current Ad Hoc Committee's task to ensure that these questions are answered satisfactorily as part of its Constitutionally appointed oversight role.

Further Information :
Eddie Trent MP
083 600 8949

Media Liaison :
Robert MacDonald
072 638 7710