The ability to pay one's personal bills in full and on time is considered a sign of good organization and responsibility. In most business environments, it is a prerequisite for functioning.
Of course, at times adversity strikes in both professional and private life, making the timely fulfillment of even basic obligations more difficult. At the same time, we are judged on the way in which we prepare for challenging times and handle them when they arrive.
How then are we to evaluate the performance of our government, considering the revelation that our national finances have arrived at the point where the lights could soon be switched off for failure to pay?
This week, it was announced that unless the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) can settle a large chunk of its $100 million fuel bill immediately, the entire population could be left "without electricity".
The corporation's executive chairman, Leslie Miller, said: "BEC is in a very tough financial situation right now, where our supplier is telling us that unless we come up with $55 million by the end of the month, we will not get any fuel."
Miller said this was the reason behind the threat he issued to three "out west" hotels that owe a combined $30 million to BEC.
"I indicated that those major entities, that is the hotel sector in this country, would either pay their bills or I was going to the extreme measure of having them disconnected," he said.
"I realized that the minister, my minister (Minister of Works Philip Davis), and probably the prime minister were going a little nuts saying that Miller gone crazy again by attempting to cut off these major suppliers.
But it was necessary to make those threats." What Miller did not explain is how the country's only electricity provider, an entity entirely administered by his government, got itself into such dire straits in the first place.
How can it be that BEC arrived at the point where the country is threatened with being plunged into darkness, without measures having been taken to fix the problem? Why could they not see it coming?
The Christie administration cannot claim that the money to pay the bill simply does not exist. Firstly, between the $9 million they are plunging into establishing a much-criticized Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival, and the ballooning cost of BAMSI - swollen from $20 million to $50 million thus far without adequate explanation - BEC's fuel suppliers could have been satisfied without the need to shake down the operators or our main industry.
Secondly, for months now the government has been boasting of its belt-tightening efforts aimed at recovering some of the hundreds of millions in revenue that regularly slips through the cracks.
If they haven't yet managed to collect enough to satisfy something as fundamental as the light bill, the public should indeed be concerned.
In a matter of months, value-added tax (VAT) will impose a whole new level of administrative responsibility on the government, one which we cannot afford for it to bungle.
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