FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF PUBLIC UTILITIES IN WESTERN BALKANS

Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina recently published that between 70 and 80 percent of public utilities are hardy able to pay their accounts payable and at least half of them has fulfilled the conditions for the opening of bankruptcy proceedings, according to estimates made by the Association of Bankruptcy Administrators. Similar situation is in other Western Balkan countries; budgets of public utility companies are not able to settle obligations. Why is it becoming convenient, also followed by deterioration of public infrastructure and worsening of public services provision quality, and how can such declining process be reversed? The paper presents research on this topic, focusing specially to water utilities, and offering potential responses to these questions.