Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
Thank you to all of you for your presentations.
I want to start with Gerry Barr. First of all, thank you for coming year after year after year to try to ensure that Canada lives up to its international obligations. We're still a long way from doing that.
I want to focus on a very disturbing story that I heard on CBC Ottawa this morning suggesting that Canada must funnel its foreign aid through international agencies like the World Bank or the United Nations Development Programme, and that we do not know where the money is going, how it's being used, and what effect it has. The article went on to say that we're apparently putting $300 million through CIDA to Afghanistan, but we don't have a clue about where it's going. And of course there are all kinds of stories suggesting that some of the warlords are getting a bigger share than the people who actually need it.
I want to ask you what the situation is and what we can do about it. Would it not be the case that Canada has the right to demand some sort of accounting if it puts money into international development?