ViK is a public company without a public purpose!

By: Muamer Bandić

The statement by the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uk, that "the gym has become more expensive, so why shouldn't water become more expensive too" represents a very unserious and dilettantish concept for justifying an increase in the price of water for the citizens of Sarajevo.

I am not sure if the young prime minister wanted to boast that he is a regular gym user, or signal to the owners of these facilities that membership fees are too high, or if he used the increased price of these recreational services as an argument for increasing the price of water, one of the essential public services for our citizens?

However, one thing is certain – comparing a luxury and recreational service like a gym with a basic human need and right like drinking water shows a profound misunderstanding of the job our prime minister does and the priorities he considers.

The prime minister should know that a large number of citizens, especially the elderly and those in social need, as well as most workers in families where only one member is employed, do not have the luxury of affording a gym membership, let alone an increase in the price of water. For many, water is a basic need and right, not a whim or a luxury item.

People responsible for such political moves must be aware that drinking water is an elementary human need, not an instrument for political manipulation and profit-making.

Water in Sarajevo Canton is essentially free because it is our natural resource. However, citizens pay for the maintenance of the water supply and sewage network, water distribution, and wastewater disposal. The question arises: what are the citizens of Sarajevo paying for, and what are they actually getting?

The key fact is that the KS Government, on behalf of KJKP "Vodovod i Kanalizacija" (ViK), took a loan of 25 million euros from the EBRD for the reconstruction of the water supply network. This loan was announced as a "historic step" towards solving the problem of water losses in the network, which at that time amounted to as much as 70%.
The government took a loan that did not improve anything because today, eight years later, losses in the water supply network have not only not decreased but have increased to 73%. Thus, a public debt of 25 million euros has been created, which citizens will repay, and NOTHING has been resolved!

And now, after having paid for this reconstruction once through borrowing, they are asking citizens of Sarajevo to pay for it again through increased water prices and on their backs.
What is further concerning is the way ViK carries out its basic activities. The key job of this public company is the maintenance of the water supply and sewage network, but instead of doing it with its own capacities and resources, ViK engages private contractors through public procurement. Practically, ViK is more involved in tender procedures and administrative tasks than in its actual activity – water supply, wastewater disposal, and network maintenance.

I don't know how to justify the fact that a public company, whose basic function is the maintenance and servicing of infrastructure, spends public money on private companies that perform that job instead of them?

If ViK is just an "intermediary" organizing public procurements, the question of its existence in this form arises. And how is it even possible for a public company, whose basic activity is network maintenance, to engage other companies to perform its core business?

Such a practice not only makes the concept of public companies meaningless but also opens the door to potential abuses through the public procurement system, which has already been identified as a playground for political favoritism and dubious business arrangements.

The situation becomes even more alarming when viewed in the broader picture, that this public company is being devastated as part of preparing the ground for the introduction of a private concessionaire into the water supply system of Sarajevo Canton. After a multi-million euro loan that citizens are repaying, with failure to reduce losses and high maintenance costs, a perfect justification is being created for the arrival of a "savior" from the private sector.

The entry of a private concessionaire would mean the complete takeover of tariff system management, leaving the citizens of Sarajevo without any influence on water prices and the quality of services themselves. Experiences from other countries have shown that the moment water becomes a market commodity under private management, prices skyrocket, leaving social categories of the population without basic human needs and rights.

With their failed policies, Trojka is turning Sarajevo not into a province, but into a Brazilian favela where Vojin Mijatović is enriching himself with his cronies.

This time, as throughout their entire term, Trojka demonstrates the incompetence and ignorance of its personnel, and shows a lack of vision for the management and development of Sarajevo Canton. And they bill all of this to the citizens of Sarajevo. They are trying to present a complete systemic collapse and breakdown of the entire infrastructure as some kind of success.

They justify the lack of concrete results with unserious and dilettantish statements, such as comparing water prices with gym prices, while in reality, it is about deliberate political spin aimed at hiding their own incompetence from the public and creating space for the privatization of the most significant public resources and services of Sarajevo Canton.

They have already turned VIK into a public company without a public purpose, a similar case is with GRAS, and a group of friends from Dubai has also set their sights on JP PD Butmir.