I think that, over time, whenever there's an audit done, whether it be by an internal audit department, the comptroller general's, the procurement ombudsman's or my office, the tendency is to add more rules. I think here the case is not that there were rules missing—except for conflict of interest, which is why we issued one there—but that the rules just need to be followed. I think it's important for the federal government to sit back and try to assess why this is happening. What is it about the procurement rules that are driving the behaviour that we're seeing?
There could be many reasons for that. Is it that the rules are so complex that, in order to speed up the procurement process, people are working around the rules? Is it that there are so many rules that they don't know them all and are accidentally not applying them? Is there some other behaviour that is driving what we're seeing? It's clear that the rules are there to ensure fairness, transparency, accountability and delivering value for money. It's just that they're not being followed.