Thank you, Madam Chair.
Let me just start by explaining that the mandate given to our office is a very progressive mandate. Let me start by saying that. It's quite different from an audit mandate. We are not auditors who go in after the transaction and come back and report deficiencies.
Our mandate really is to strengthen the system and we are very proactive that way. The practice review part of our mandate really is the preventive part. We go in and try to analyze and resolve problems before they become big issues.
The questions you have raised, each one of them, are of great interest to us. This year we did five practice reviews.
Let me give you the example of supplier debriefings, which is part of our annual report. We were struck by the fact that while everybody agrees that the debriefings for suppliers on why they won or did not win a contract are very good and benefit both the suppliers and the government, there was a great deal of frustration on both sides.
Suppliers weren't getting information they thought would be of any use to them. In many cases, they weren't even aware that they could get a debriefing. On the other hand, government people, when we talked to them, agreed that it was a good idea, but they had been advised that anything they said could and would be used against them in a court of law.