As I said in my presentation, the current commissioner has asked for additional funding. The commissioner's office has been doing so for a number of years. As I understand it, the office receives about 3,000 new complaints each year and processes 2,000 of them. So 1,000 files always go unprocessed.
I am very concerned that it takes about seven months to assign a file to an investigator. It takes about nine months to process a file but there is a wait of seven months before a file is assigned to an investigator. I find that unacceptable. Can we put it down to a lack of resources? Is that the only reason or do we have to look at the process itself? Do we have to change it? Does it have to be less formal? Do we need new technology or a more modern case management system? All those solutions have to be examined.
Ultimately, if I, together with the experts in the commissioner's office, come to the conclusion that we cannot do better than what is being done at the moment, I will ask for additional funds to hire people. I agree with you that having permanent employees who are part of the team is more of an incentive, more motivating for everyone than hiring people on contract to come to work for us for only a certain time.