The committee is increasingly gathering information, and I think this is a legitimate concern. There is a lot of talk these days about accountability. When we went to Kandahar, a number of people showed us that CIDA was doing very poor accountability. Cheques were being signed and no one was concerned about follow-up.
I'm going to ask the Minister of Defence a question about accountability. You seem to be very optimistic, since you say in your presentation that you've been there three times and that you've seen progress.
Incidentally, General Hillier, I'd like you to apologize to Brigadier-General Atkinson for me because I gave him a very bad welcome the last time he appeared before our committee. I thought he had put on rose-coloured glasses in order to give us his monthly briefing.
A number of reports completely contradict what's currently going on in Afghanistan. I could mention the Senlis Council and Oxfam. Most of those reports say that we are losing the war in Afghanistan. There's been a major setback: 56% of the territory is apparently occupied by the Taliban.
So when we talk about accountability, we have to ask ourselves whether our work and what it costs are worth the trouble. Is the department really giving us an accurate picture when it tells us that everything is going well, whereas other reports say that everything is going poorly?