Fill in the blank with the appropriate word: 'The committee ______ its report to the ministry yesterday.'

The presence of the time marker 'yesterday' indicates a completed action in the past, which requires the simple past tense form. Therefore, 'submitted' is the correct choice. 'Has submitted' (present perfect) cannot be used with a specific past time reference like 'yesterday'. 'Submit' is the base form and grammatically incorrect here, while 'will submit' indicates future action. The rule is: specific past time expressions such as yesterday, last week, in 2020, etc., always require the simple past tense.