Over 46 years in the Virgin Islands, I have come to realise that we don’t like paying our bills, whether as individuals, corporations or government.

I know people are hurting right now after last year’s disasters, but this national trait is much older than that. How many times have I stood in line in the income tax office whilst a landowner is paying years-overdue taxes on several properties? Government seems reluctant to, or has no means of, enforcing payment, even though there is a stated penalty.

Similar scenes are played out at the Water and Sewerage Department and at the telephone and cable companies. Several times a day, for years, the BVI Electricity Corporation has advertised on the radio that we should pay our bills or face being cut off for non-payment. Are there really that many delinquent payers all the time?

Criminal offence?

There are two instances of non-payment which may be a criminal, or least a civil, offence.

Employers are supposed to collect their employees’ contributions towards Social Security, which is compulsory, and hand it over to government along with their own contributions. This ensures that workers’ pensions and other social benefits are safeguarded. But we hear of instances where this does not happen and, if the employees do not check that their contributions are being paid in, then they are in default.

I assume this is mainly a problem with small — dare I say unscrupulous — employers, who are effectively stealing their workers’ contributions, as well as not contributing their own. Again, government does not seem to follow up cases.

NHI money woes

Now lately we are getting bombarded by several radio adverts every day indicating that employers are not paying over their workers’ National Health Insurance contributions so that they can find themselves uninsured and not covered for treatment. Of course, patients should not go overseas for treatment without pre-authorisation, except perhaps in dire emergencies. One reason for this sudden deluge of adverts is that the NHI scheme finds itself paying out more than it gets in and may need topping up by government.

Unpaid gov’t bills

But government seems to have its own problems with paying bills. It apparently owes the BVIEC millions of dollars for supplies to government buildings and the college.

Often we hear of contractors who have done work for government not being paid for months. Similarly, the bills for August Emancipation Festival don’t get paid. (In my view, government should not be putting any money into festival apart from security to ensure a safe environment). Of course, many larger contractors have 30- or 60-day payment conditions, but this can hurt the small supplier, who may depend on payment to pay workers.

There are other non-fiscal ways in which we don’t pay our “bills.” Contractors, for example, sometimes promise to come and don’t turn up. “He/she has gone to come back” is often heard in government offices. There there’s “Come back tomorrow” or “You need another form.” Banks might refuse to accept your money into an account without documentation in case you are laundering it for criminals. And we all know “friends” who borrow and just don’t pay you back. I am sure readers can think of other instances of reluctance to pay.