Thank you for the question.
Yes, they were. As you're aware, I had a book published on defence procurement, A View from the Inside, and I've been arguing for the last 15 years like a broken record that ministerial accountability will always lead to inefficiency, lack of information and lack of monitoring. I don't know why we haven't fixed it. Maybe it's not a government priority, but until it is fixed, we're all going to be suffering from a lack of information as we try to improve the process.
To me, it's not nuclear science; it's basic procurement. Without a forward-looking plan, without performance measures and without being able to hold one minister accountable, don't expect improvements.