The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu runs the risk of being formally summoned to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

The minister gave an undertaking to members of the public accounts committee in a letter dated 15 March 2010, that she was "very keen to take part in the Scopa deliberations on the financial statements and the reports of the Auditor-General on the Department of Defence". But when push-came-to-shove, she once again failed to appear before Scopa.

This is the minister's second "no show" in front of the public accounts committee, and is part of a pattern of resisting accountability which, in addition to dodging public accounts committee meetings, includes:

• withholding important defence department reports such as the "First Interim Report of the Interim National Defence Force Service Commission to the Department of Defence and Military Veterans"; and
• failing to reply to parliamentary questions - there are more than 20 written parliamentary questions to the defence department that were not replied to in the first term of Parliament.

The interference by Nyami Booi, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, in recommending that the minister should not appear before the public accounts committee, was outrageous.

But the fact is that the minister's parliamentary strategy backfired: she did not want to appear before the public accounts committee in an open session to account on the Defence Department's woeful financial statements, but instead she wanted to appear before the public accounts committee in a closed session to provide a briefing on negative comments about her conduct reported in the media. The minister states, in a letter, dated 18 April 2010, that she would like to "deal specifically with the numerous and negative comments made by members of Scopa, as reported in the media."

The minister's "no show" has damaged an already damaged relationship between the defence department and Scopa. She let down the Defence Department, who were represented by more than ten senior officials, making them appear to be reluctant to deal with the hard issues that have been raised by Scopa.

The DA therefore calls on Themba Godi to finalize a date with the minister as a matter of urgency or - failing that - to formally summon the minister to appear before Scopa.