EDITOR, The Tribune.

There has been a lot of brouhaha lately about the Bahamas Defence Force’s decision to let its Commodore take his vacation leave rather than allowing him to stay on the job and continue to accumulate extra pay for postponed vacations.

By staying on the job, he has already collected and is owed three months vacation leave. This means that he will have been paid for the time that he stayed on the job, rather than taking his vacation, in addition to his accumulated vacation pay. With this system an officer could accumulate a year’s vacation, because he has worked for a full year and chalked up the vacations that he should have taken as either extra pay, or a year off from the Force.

It is understood that the Minnis administration’s policy is not to pay individuals for extended periods of vacation time in such instances. A sound business decision – long overdue!

It was claimed that to enforce such a decision came at a bad time because of the hurricane. The public was assured that it did no such thing. When the Commodore left for his extended vacation, the second in command took charge and, we understand, has everything under control.

This extra vacation business was a scheme that should never have been allowed to start.

I do not know the rules for the Force, but I am a business man and I do know that no business could stay open if it employed such a scatter-brained system. When one is employed a contract is agreed with pay and leave spelt out. There is no way that an employee could arbitrarily increase their pay by deciding to work during their vacation leave and either accumulate enough leave that they either go on an extended vacation with the accumulated vacation pay or they take it in cash and continue working! It would be like having two persons doing one man’s job – no business could afford such foolishness. In private enterprise, a contract is agreed, which includes time allowed off for a vacation. When vacation time comes, the next in line steps into the breach and carries on. And so it goes down the line as each staff member takes a vacation at a scheduled time.

No wonder government ministries are drowning in debt. It would be of easy solution if such practices were immediately stopped, and if bills were sent out and collected on time, and government employees were efficient in the work that they do.

With this type of nonsense being manipulated no wonder so many Bahamians want a government job. They should remember that it is our hard-earned money that they are wasting — and seeing the inefficiency in so many government departments, no wonder so many Bahamians resent their behaviour.

Anything to stop the waste and improve efficiency in government departments would get three cheers from the working community. Remember folks, it’s our money that some of you are playing foot-loose and fancy-free with. It’s time to shape up! Hats off to the Minnis government for its sensible decision.

A BAHAMIAN BUSINESSMAN

Nassau,

October 30, 2019.