SCOPA: Arms Deal firmly on the agenda
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the fact the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has scheduled meetings to probe the various investigations into the arms deal. The programme includes a meeting on Wednesday 04 August 2010 to discuss the handover of cases relating to the arms deal from the National Prosecuting Authority to the Hawks. The programme also includes meetings to discuss the arms deal and consider submissions from stakeholders on:
- Tuesday 10 August 2010;
- Wednesday 11 August 2010; and
- Friday 13 August 2010.
The meeting with the Hawks will give Scopa the opportunity to probe the state of current investigations being conducted into the Arms Deal. The Hawks must demonstrate that they are serious about conducting a proper investigation into the arms deal by ensuring:
- that there are is a sufficient number of properly qualified investigators;
- that investigators are properly resourced; and
- that investigators are cooperating with investigating authorities overseas.
Moreover, the meetings will give Scopa the opportunity to probe the mysterious changes made to the final report of the Joint Investigation Report into the Strategic Defence Procurement Packages. There is quite unambiguous evidence available in the public domain that the draft version of the Joint Report was substantially altered, to radically change the nature of the report's findings.
The Scopa meetings on the arms deal will hopefully go some way to getting to the bottom of what really happened during the arms deal.
Statement issued by David Maynier, MP, and Mark Steele, MP, Democratic Alliance members of Scopa, July 21 2010
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