Unpaid bills of citizens for utilities in Canton Sarajevo (CS) amount to more than 200 million, BAM, said the Minister of Justice and Administration of CS Mario Nenadic, after a meeting with the President of the Municipal Court Janja Jovanovic and representatives of municipal public cantonal companies.
“At the meeting we discussed a package of measures for the improvement of the relevant situation. It is evident that despite the huge involvement of the Court, the number of pending cases on this basis continues to increase as it was never done enough in order to address this systemic problem. The current situation can be changed, and the relevant ministry will work with the government to do everything to fix it,” said Minister Nenadic.
He announced that the Ministry of Justice and Administration of CS will prepare an action plan in 10 to 14 days, which will represent an accurate measure for changing the existing system of utility billing, regulations, update lists and others.
They, among others, will be related to improvement of the collection system in the utility companies, the integration of these systems through the formation of a holding company for collecting, issuing unique billing account, connecting unpaid utility services for the realization of other rights and services in Canton Sarajevo, for example: suspension of registration of motor vehicles, changes in the system of payment of social subsidy making the social map of users of utilities, updating the database of utility companies and their comparison with a database of the Municipal Court, publication of the list of debtors, writing off the old debts, if considered cheaper, because as he said at the meeting, the judicial costs with fee are about 100 BAM, and the debt for the bill amounts to, let’s say, 10 BAM.
President of the Municipal Court Sarajevo Janja Jovanovic said that this year the court resolved about 150,000 of these cases, but that at the end of the year, they receive more of them. She noted that citizens must pay for all services performed by municipal companies, regardless of the amount of debt, except if they are in social need.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Infrastructure Senad Hasanspahic, who also attended the meeting, said that utility companies need to be further engaged on this issue and warn debtors on time, before the warning for unpaid bills ends up in court, as announced from the Government of CS.
(Source: akta.ba)
