I'm ensuring that this is done by chairing the selection advisory board, by being present at meetings of the selection advisory board where we do the initial screening of the candidates. For example, it may interest you to know that we're in the middle of a campaign now where we're considering a very large number of candidates. In the June 2008 recruitment campaign, we received 540 applications--540 applications. Of those, a number of candidates were found to be qualified and were recommended to the minister to be added to the list that already existed of qualified candidates.
In March 2009 another recruitment campaign was launched. These are public recruitment campaigns, notices in the major dailies of the major cities. More than 760 applications have been received--766. We've already started to screen the first batch for suitability and we're about to screen the rest of them. Those that pass the suitability screening will then go on to write the written test.
I also sit on a number of interview panels. I don't sit on every one because, as you can see with those numbers, I'd be doing nothing but that. I can tell you without a doubt that certainly, from my perspective, the process has been entirely merit-based and non-partisan, because there has to be consensus in the interview panel. Every interview panel consists of me or one of my designates, so a deputy chairperson, either another senior GIC or a senior public servant, for example, our senior general counsel. It consists of one of the persons from outside the board, whose names I gave you, jointly appointed by me and the minister and by a human resources consultant who is an expert in behavioural event interviews. We have to reach a consensus on the mark to be assigned for each competency, so for each of the five competencies that are tested in the interview. Then the references are provided by the consultant to each member who was on the interview panel.