House Chair, thank you for the answer, Madam Minister. I don't know the exact details of the case, but let me thank you for being so frank about it and doing an investigation.
It's important to note that it has been exactly a year since you took over the portfolio of Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs and you have committed yourself to good governance, which I thank you for. Indeed, I have seen some very positive changes in the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs over the past year. You took over a department with serious governance problems, which you are well aware of, and since then many senior officials have been disciplined and some have been fired. I have no doubt there are many problems that you don't know about, and as the Minister you want to know about them.
Therefore, with your having taken over this department and your commitment to good governance, I ask whether you have personally reaffirmed in your department a whistle-blower policy to the effect that if there are problems a person knows about, he or she should speak out about them. If so, what are the relevant details; if not, why not?
Secondly, do you as Minister have an open-door policy where staff members can come and raise issues with you about fruitless, wasteful expenditure or corruption? I ask this because, of course, I know there are lots of problems in your department and sometimes staff members may fear retribution inside the department from senior staff members above them. Thank you, Madam Minister.