Beware of March madness. This happens every year when a tsunami of crazed civil servants, rush around town buying everything they can lay their hands on.
They feel they must use up any of their remaining yearly budgets before the fiscal year ends. They shop at the stores, they shop on line, they take sightseeing trips, they will do almost anything to drain their departments of any excess funds. It is a spectacular spending frenzy with the chant of “Use it or lose it” ringing in their ears.
I can remember being in one government office, when the manager was walking around asking the staff, “Do you need a new camera, binoculars, field equipment, anything? Put in your orders now, because we got budget to burn.”
I can also remember being in an isolated community, when a twin otter full of civil servants arrived on a sightseeing and souvenir shopping tour. They were all very excited to be out and about. I assume back at the office, the phones were ringing and giving the standard reply, “I am away from my desk.” The part they left out, was that they were all out on a holiday junket paid for by the taxpayers.
While they made no secret of what was going on, I did wonder what the people in the communities they visited thought of this whole affair. True they got to sell some souvenirs to the visitors, but I bet most of them could have really used a free flight to go shopping in other bigger communities.
The year end spending doesn’t just affect the government but also those dependent on government funding. One year at the dump, a bunch of boxes showed up. Some hadn’t even been opened. They contained binders, clipboards, report covers, office supplies and team jerseys.
Being curious, I phoned up the association involved which was 100-per-cent dependent on government funding. I talked to a young woman in the office who was refreshingly honest and candid. When I asked why all this stuff was being throw out, she replied “Oh, the boss told us to empty out the store room, to make room for this year’s order.”
Then I asked why it didn’t go to a school or some other needy group. She replied, “The boss was quite clear on that, we were to take it to the dump and trash it.” So not only was this an incredible waste of perfectly good, never been used stuff, it was also a real waste of space at the dump.
But the insanity doesn’t stop there. March and April are known as office furniture months at the dump because of all the government office furniture that shows up. Desks, chairs, filing cabinets and you name it. They arrive by the truck load.
Years ago, there was a story circulating around town. You could call it an urban legend. A high ranking civil servant had just been transferred North. He didn’t like the furniture in his office but was told that he couldn’t get any new furniture, unless the old stuff was defective or damaged.
So, he walked down to the local hardware store, came back to his office with a sledge hammer and trashed the place. Guess what? He soon got brand new office furniture, more to his liking. In some versions of the story, he even got a promotion, for showing initiative.
I have no idea how true that story is but considering the things I have seen, it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. The one thing we do know is, that all across the land, there is a spending frenzy as government departments burn up their budgets.
This has got to waste millions and millions of dollars. It bothers me that everyone seems to know about this, the politicians, the civil servants and most of the public. but no one even questions the wisdom of it.
It is time we said: End the March Madness!"
The government could let departments carry their surpluses over to the next year or they could not penalize them if they don’t use it all. The savings would certainly add up. Now I sometimes wonder, is it just a coincidence that March Madness coincides with March Break and other spring shenanigans? Someone should do a study on this.