Mail under Allister Sparks and the Sunday Express under Rex Gibson broke the story and were particularly active in investigating it. At least in conservative society and within the ruling National Party, the scandal was less about the fact of a state propaganda campaign than about the mismanagement of state funds, appropriated without the knowledge of Parliament, and an apparent cover-up by senior government officials and elected representatives. It emerged, through the state audit and other sources, that Project Annemarie funds had been transferred to private bank accounts and used to fund extravagant trips abroad by Project officials. Deceit by participants became a prominent issue in 1978, when attention turned to the financing of the Citizen. In this regard, Mulder faced particular public censure – in May 1978, responding to a parliamentary question from opposition politician Japie Basson, he had denied outright that the Citizen had been financed with state funds, thereby lying to Parliament. Official inquiries Parliamentary inquiry At the end of January 1978, amid widely circulated rumours inflamed by media reports, Parliament's Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Hennie van der Walt, initiated an inquiry. The committee's final report to Parliament in July 1978 found that there had been financial irregularities and that a more extensive inquiry should be established. Rhoodie was forced to resign, and Vorster dissolved the Department of Information, replacing it with the Bureau of National and International Communication. Van den Bergh also resigned and BOSS was restructured. Reynders inquiry Also in July 1978, Vorster appointed BOSS to conduct a special internal investigation into financial irregularities in the use of the secret accounts. The BOSS auditor was Loot Reynders. On 20 September, Vorster resigned as Prime Minister, citing ill health, and took up the State Presidency, a largely ceremonial position similar to that of Governor-General of South Africa. Botha, his Minister of Defence, became Prime Minister. In late September, the report of the Reynders inquiry was leaked in a nationalist newspaper in Mulder's constituency. The report was remarkably brief and found no irregularities, clearing Mulder and his department. The leak came only days before an internal National Party leadership election in which Mulder was slated to compete – he had previously held substantial political power as the Party's apparent "crown prince." However, despite Reynders's favourable report, Mulder lost the leadership election to Botha. Mostert Commission Finance Minister Owen Horwood appointed Justice Anton Mostert to carry