Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I know you are tempted to ask about other things that we might deal with. My interest is more in an oversight mechanism. We want to understand your relationship as a committee of Parliament with the department and entities that account to Parliament. We want to know the strength of Parliament in terms of its oversight, in the event that we find ourselves in a situation in which government becomes stronger than the other parts of the state. In our context, we have three arms of government. We have Parliament, government, and the judiciary. In a way, the executive, the cabinet, is accountable to Parliament.
I want to understand the strength of your committee in terms of monetary policies of government, without necessarily micromanaging the department, without necessarily calling the accounting officer every five minutes. What is the relationship? Where is the separation of powers? To what extent are you a formidable force in terms of being a decision-making body of government?
Government makes policies, but Parliament monitors whether those policies are implemented, especially as it relates to the mandate you're given from your constituencies and what the people want to see the department be. I want to look at those issues.