THREE men who should have been instrumental in keeping Guernsey’s airport dispute-free and open for business over the May bank holiday period appeared before the tribunal of inquiry into the firefighters affair.

Islanders might have expected them to have explained the steps they took to prevent thousands of passengers from having their holiday or business plans disrupted and the efforts made to prevent reputational disaster for the island.

Instead, the States negotiators and the head of the Public Sector Remuneration Committee focused on whether the Policy Council – in its guise as the Emergency Powers Authority – exceeded its remit by taking steps to stop the industrial action.

While public bodies or officials must not exceed their areas of responsibility or authority, it was nevertheless a vivid illustration of the topsy-turvy world of the States where everyone wants input but no one has any accountability.

Although civil servants like the airport director and the PSRC’s chief negotiator are paid market-competitive salaries – a glance at the published minimum and maximum salary scales suggest they will be on somewhere between £88,700 and £116,000 – to ‘manage’, there is no risk or accountability if they do not.

As long as due process is followed, no matter how inappropriate, then whatever they do is risk-free to themselves, irrespective of the wider consequences: in this case the airport closure.

While the airport director tried hard to sort out staffing, when it came to money, that was a matter for the PSRC, which was interested only in referring matters to arbitration uncaring of how long the airport was closed.

And it is that focus on process that led to the PRSC resigning because its turf had been trampled by others. In turn, that has triggered the tribunal of inquiry to see who can be blamed.

Not blamed for the inept handling of a dialogue that the men claim was about retention issues, not blamed for letting the airport close, but blamed for breaking the rules.

What taxpayers care about is outcomes – like a fully functioning airport – and what it is costing.

But that’s not what this tribunal is about.