The examination that comes before the commitment.

In classical Athens nobody took office without a dokimasia — a scrutiny held before the appointment, never after. It did not ask whether the candidate would do the job well. It asked whether he could be held to account, whether his conduct deserved the trust, and whether he had what the office required.

Capital works the other way round. Diligence establishes whether a deal is attractive and whether a manager is competent. Very little of it establishes whether the structure receiving the money can be held to anything at all. A structure can be entirely honest, competent and well-intentioned and still fail every one of these questions:

• Can it be held to account?
• Does it deserve the trust?
• Is it equipped to deliver?

Dokimasia is an independent examination of a receiving structure, commissioned by the party about to commit the capital. Its output is not a number. It is a set of conditions: what must be true before funds move, what triggers intervention, who holds the authority to intervene, and on what date each one is verified.