Airport party
Good managers and leaders should thank and reward the people who work for them when they do well.
Sometimes the reward can be a simple pat on the back or a letter. Sometimes it will be a party, a financial bonus or a gift.
And there is no question that staff at the Airport deserve some thanks and praise after air passengers voted the Airport the friendliest in the world in an International Air Transport Association poll earlier this year.
Last week, Transport Minister Ewart Brown decided to throw the staff a party to congratulate them.
The party took place at Clearwater Beach, and was, by all accounts, a great success.
That should come as no surprise, since it came with a $35,000 price tag.
Apparently, 1,000 people came to the party, since the families of the workers came too. And on top of food and entertainment, attendees received towels and T-shirts as well.
That is very generous, although some would argue that the workers deserved it. The same people would argue that $35 per attendee is not an enormous amount. And it doesn't work out as very much on a per taxpayer basis.
The staff deserve credit and praise for the IATA award and most people recognise that working at the Airport often means working unsociable hours and can be difficult at times.
Still, there are some problems with the party and the idea.
The first is how it was funded. Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown told The Royal Gazette that it was funded from other allocations granted to the Transport Ministry.
That means that it was supposed to be spent on other programmes within the Ministry. And that means that either other programmes will go short, or that the Ministry did not need as much money as it thought it did in the Budget.
If the Ministry did in fact save the money, then it should go back to the Consolidated Fund, or it should be set aside for the genuine supplementary needs of the Ministry or Government, not used to throw a party.
Indeed, it is quite possibly illegal for it to be used for a purpose other than the one the House of Assembly voted it for.
What happens if other Government departments decide to spend their unspent allocations on parties at the end of the year?
If Government decides it should have money on hand to be used to thank staff for going above and beyond the call of duty, or just for doing a good job, then that is something that should be included in their budgets at the start of the year and approved by the House of Assembly.
The second issue concerns the idea that the staff at the airport, or anywhere else, should be given a party, for essentially, doing something that they are supposed to be doing anyway.
Shouldn't staff at the Airport be friendly as a matter of course?
That may seem a little ungenerous, and quite possibly it is. The staff do deserve credit and praise for the achievement. But a $35,000 party? Wouldn't a letter or a T-shirt be enough?
l Recently in this space, Dr. Brown was unfairly criticised for a confrontation at the Airport with a Police officer.
An editorial incorrectly stated that Dr. Brown had been refused entry to the Airport when he was in fact allowed in. The editorial also incorrectly said that he claimed the "UBP Transport Ministers did the same thing" when in fact Dr. Brown was agreeing with a recommendation that PLP Ministers should have permanent passes to enter the Airport in the same way that UBP Ministers did, instead of being required to get temporary passes on every occasion they need to enter the security area.