Airbus A400M investigation delay wrong

David Maynier, Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans
1 November 2009

The Democratic Alliance believes that the decision to put the brakes on the proposal to establish a multiparty ad hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the Airbus A400M arms deal is wrong. There is, if anything, now a greater urgency to investigate this, as new and murky facts emerge about the deal to acquire the eight Airbus A400M transport aircraft.

On 20 October 2009 we proposed a motion in parliament to establish a multiparty ad hoc committee to investigate the Airbus A400M arms deal after it was revealed that the cost of the acquisition had skyrocketed to R47 billion.

However, reports now claim that a decision has been taken to shelve the proposal pending the announcement of the final decision to proceed or terminate the Airbus A400M arms deal, following an agreement by members of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans.

The fact is that there was no discussion, and no agreement to put on hold the decision to establish this multiparty ad hoc committee.

Moreover, the decision to establish the multiparty ad hoc committee should not be contingent on the decision to proceed with, or terminate the Airbus A400M arms deal.

The multiparty ad hoc committee should be established to investigate the arms deal regardless of the decision to proceed with or terminate this deal. What we need to know is how we got into such a high risk procurement programme without a tender process and against the recommendation of the defence department in the first place.

There are a number of new and murky facts that have emerged in the past couple of weeks about the Airbus A400M arms deal including: -

• The department of defence reportedly recommended against acquiring the Airbus A400M transport aircraft;
• Controversial businessman Ivor Ichikowitz, who’s company Paramount Group was reportedly under investigation some years ago for allegedly flouting National Conventional Arms Control Committee regulations, bought empowerment shares in Aerosud, one of the risk sharing partners in the production of the Airbus A400M; and
• A further transfer payment in the amount of R192 million will need to be made to support struggling Denel Saab Aerostructures, which is also a risk sharing partner in the production of the Airbus A400M.

This is why we need to urgently establish a multiparty ad hoc committee to investigate the Airbus A400M arms deal.

The DA will take up this matter with Nyami Booi, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, when this committee next meets on Tuesday 3 November 2009.

We can only hope that the decision to put the brakes on establishing a multiparty ad hoc committee to investigate the Airbus A400M arms deal is not a sign of yet another coming cover-up in Parliament.