With regard to the appointment of returning officers, which, again, is based on merit, basically what was done at the time was that we reviewed all the returning officers and consulted with MPs as to whether they had any views on the returning officers. As provided by the act, as a result of those consultations, 190 of those returning officers were reappointed without competition. They were already in place.
We had to run a competition across the country for 118 returning officers. In order to do that, we published in the media, through various forms, notification of positions being available. We set up boards in each of the ridings to assess candidates, who had to go through a merit process that consisted of work at home, a written exam, as well as an interview. The board consisted of an expert on HR matters, as well as two field liaison officers. Their recommendations were put forward and resulted in the various nominations that all members have been apprised of. In fact, all the appointments are posted on the website.
The cost was $1.4 million for the whole exercise. We had more than 3,000 applicants for those positions across the country. In terms of an improvement, we are in the process of conducting a post-mortem and looking at what we could do better in the future.
In terms of the coverage and currency of the registry, basically we did a test with 30,000 random electors on the registry to validate the information we had on them. We conducted phone interviews, and that's how we came, essentially, to the figures I have tabled today. It's an exercise that we plan to run on a regular basis, at least a yearly basis, so that we continue to track and over time be more comfortable with the figures we're seeing.
In terms of the IT status, I think that's a development since I last appeared before the panel. We have now a request for proposals that has been posted on MERX calling for submissions. We are confident that we will meet the deadlines we've set for ourselves of having the hardware renewed by the end of July.