Sundays are usually quiet for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation—but not yesterday, thanks to Province columnist Michael Smyth. In a blistering piece, Smyth exposed a $1.5 million employee recognition cupboard, a program that allows provincial bureaucrats to send each other gifts ranging from $5 Starbucks cards to Mountain Equipment Co-op backpacks—all paid for by you, the taxpayer.

From Smyth’s story:

It’s all part of the government’s $1.5-million staff-appreciation program for rewarding workers who do a good job. Employees are encouraged to visit one of several password-protected websites, where they can send presents to co-workers with the click of a mouse.

The finance ministry has a website called “The Online Recognition Cupboard” stocked with presents, and employees don’t need formal permission to use it, according to the “Frequently Asked Questions” section on the site.

Question: “Do I need my manager’s approval to recognize someone with the Recognition Cupboard items?”

Answer: “No. The Recognition Cupboard is a tool to encourage frequent informal recognition from leader to employee, peer to peer, or employee to leader. The items within the Cupboard are paid for by the ministry and are available to be used for recognition of Finance employees.”

Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, meanwhile, says only half the money is actually for the fits—the other half is for long-service recognition banquets. From the Vancouver Sun:

He noted more than half of the $1.5 million goes to a number of special events each year, including long-service awards dinners and a dinner to celebrate exceptional innovations in civil service. "It's not people just firing around gifts to each other for fun," Falcon said.

"Recognizing employees that have served the province for decades is entirely appropriate and I'm not going to be an employer that is going to cancel those kinds of programs."

Falcon admitted he is unfamiliar with the inner workings of the program - and what measures are in place, if any, to ensure it is not abused - but said he would look into it.

"The accountability rests with the assistant deputy ministers who are responsible for making the purchases of the recognition items and making sure they are utilized in an appropriate manner," he said.

"I'm not aware of any abuse taking place; it's never been brought to my attention. Certainly I will look further into it to ensure that that's not taking place. I would be surprised if it was."

I have no problem recognizing diligent staffers for long service. But the reward cupboard is troubling for many taxpayers on two levels: 1. Accountability and 2. Disconnect.

While the Minister correctly noted that the ADMs are ultimately responsible, the fact employees can send these things around without managerial approval or oversight is a big red flag. It’s just too open to abuse—who’s to say the rewards are for legitimate work or help, and not out of friendship? If you’re going to have a program like this, you need firm accountability.

But even accountability won’t make it right. What this employee recognition cupboard highlights is the bureaucracy’s disconnect with what is happening in the real world. You see it quite a bit from the public sector unions: the BCTF touting their work outside school hours, for example. Newsflash: we all work outside regular business hours. Very few professionals have jobs where the phone and email is ever turned off. That’s the world we live in.

In the real world, when a co-worker goes above and beyond the call of duty, we write a complimentary email, or mention it to the boss. Sometimes we may even write a quick thank you card. But there’s no company-funded cupboard of rewards waiting to be sent.

It is all-too-easy to spend someone else’s money on things like this.

I did find it funny that the Sun’s story has an automatically-generated recommended link to this page, which highlights no-cost, high-return ways to enhance employee productivity. Perhaps all senior managers in Victoria should take a quick look.