Commission: The Question and the Boundary

“Look into this company” is not a question; it is an anxiety with a subject attached. “Does this company's declared ownership match its filed ownership?” is a question. It names what would answer it, it can come back no, and it ends.

Write four things before you collect anything. The question, in one sentence. The decision the answer serves, because if nothing changes either way the case should not be run. The evidence that would settle it in each direction, which doubles as the collection plan. And the boundary: period, jurisdictions, entities, platforms.

Then the stop condition, the part everyone skips. A date, a number of hours, or a threshold.

Without it, a case ends when the investigator is exhausted. That selects for stamina rather than accuracy, and produces a report that quietly omits how much was never checked.

Last, the conflict check. Whatever interest you have in the outcome goes in the file at the start, where a reader can weigh it. Declaring it later looks like concealment even when it is not.