Reorganising Local Public Utilities: Where and Why We Can Argue for the Remunicipalization Trends?

The paper is based on the use of evidence to scrutinise the effect of the Public-Private Partnership Act on the local public utility providers, where the context of the water and wastewater sector in Slovenia serves as an example. The Act affected the legal status of public enterprises, where solely...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NISPAcee journal of public administration and policy 2023-12, Vol.16 (2), p.122-142
Main Authors: Petkovšek, Veronika, Hrovatin, Nevenka, Pevcin, Primož
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Data collection
Investors
Legal status
Legislation
local public utilities
Ownership
Public enterprise
Public ownership
Public private partnerships
Public utilities
Questionnaires
remunicipalisation
Reorganization
Wastewater
Water
water and wastewater management
Water resources management
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Summary:The paper is based on the use of evidence to scrutinise the effect of the Public-Private Partnership Act on the local public utility providers, where the context of the water and wastewater sector in Slovenia serves as an example. The Act affected the legal status of public enterprises, where solely public ownership was prescribed, and therefore demanded the reorganisation of existing public enterprises. The paper aims to evaluate the reorganisation process and the trend of remunicipalisation, the motives of reorganisation (political, pragmatic or transformative) and the advantages and disadvantages of the reorganisation process. A detailed, structured online questionnaire was designed and pretested for primary data collection to reach these aims. The questionnaire was sent to the Slovenian local public utility providers in water and wastewater management. The data was collated from 2018 to 2020. It was used in the analysis to provide evidence about the outcomes of the reorganisation process. The results show that new legislation contributed to increased public ownership in local public utility provision. The results also reveal that pragmatic motivating factors contributed to increased municipal buying out of private investors from (public) enterprises. The reorganisation process led municipalities into remunicipalisation, meaning that full municipal ownership and control increased.
ISSN:1338-4309
1337-9038
1338-4309
DOI:10.2478/nispa-2023-0016