National Electronic Data Base
of Water Supply Services

We are struggling to register a customers’ organization
in order to take part in the sessions of the State Energy and
Water Regulatory Commission as an interested party
says Yurii Ivanov from the “Public Barometer”

Diana Bancheva

How does the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) become an instrument in the work of “Public Barometer”?

It all started in 2002 – 2003 when the water supply and sanitation sector was being transformed. In Sliven, the price of the household water supply provided by the “Water Supply and Sewerage Systems Ltd – Sliven” suddenly increased. It turned out that the company has a peculiar status. It was not a clear monopolistic structure but a company in a dominant position. According to the theory, when a company is dominant, it makes economies of scale and thus offers the service at lower prices. Assuming that such a company may take advantage of its position through price discrimination on the back of consumers, we wanted to know on what basis was the cost of the service increased. We decided to use the APIA and filed requests to the Public Internal Financial Control Agency, which was succeeded by the Public Financial Inspection Agency. The information we obtained did not contain data on the price forming mechanism. Then we filed a request to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. We appealed their refusal but the court did not decide in our favor. On May 25, 2006, we started the first case in the Region of Sliven before the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination. The ground we used was that the price of the water supplied in Sliven by the “Water Supply and Sewerage Systems Ltd – Sliven” was higher than the price supplied in the Municipality of Tvarditsa (in the Region of Sliven as well). Our argument was that all exit conditions were the same – the same region, the same water supply company, but different price. In December 2009, we won the case against the manager of the water supply company. We started a case against discrimination in the village of Topolchane. The ground this time is that 50% of the population pay for the provision of the service, and 50% - do not. The case was initiated in 2008 and is still going.

Recently, the Administrative Court – Sofia City decided in your favor in an access to information case for the business plan of the Water Supply company in Sliven, approved by the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission. Why are you so interested in this plan?

Together with the attorney from the Access to Information Programme Kiril Terziiski, we drew a concept for obtaining the information and filed a new request to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. At the entry of the new minister Rosen Plevneliev, we were granted access to the information. Unfortunately, the ministry did not held a big part of it. That is why we decided to request the business plans of all water supply companies from the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, starting with the plan of the Sliven supply company. The chairperson of the regulator refused access on the grounds of official secret exemption. We were represented in court by the AIP attorney Alexander Kashumov. Due to the assistance of AIP, the court decided in our favor and the SEWRC provided the business plan. We are about to request the business plans of all water supply companies in Bulgaria.

What are the data from the business plan of the water supply company in Sliven showing?

We have the 2003 – 2007 and the 2006 – 2008 plans. They are overlapping due to changes in the management of the company. The first plan I received from the former deputy mayor of the Municipality of Sliven, the second – as part of the file of the case we had before the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination. My assessment as an economist is that the plans are made unprofessionally. The information is chaotic and in many cases incorrect. There is no evidence of the grounds on which the eligible losses can be 82%. There is no economic logic behind this.
For the second case before the anti-discrimination commission, we made a model of the village of Topolchane for 2008. After consulting with attorney Terziiski, we requested the civil registration of every house in the village from the Municipality of Sliven. Then we multiplied the registered citizens with the amount of supplied, piped and sanitized water in cubic meters pursuant to Regulation No. 4 as of September 14, 2004 on the conditions and procedure for joining of customers and using the water pipe systems.

It turned out that there were no losses, while the manager of the “Water Supply and Sewerage Systems Ltd – Sliven” was claiming for 77% losses of household water. The thing is that the company supplies the whole village, but only 50% of the citizens have water-meters and are billed. The water supplied to the other half of the population is calculated as “loss.” If this quantity of water is billed, it would no longer be loss. The so called loss is thus covered by the customers who pay higher price for the service. If these are real losses, however, the Prosecutor’s Office should have started inspection and the responsible person should have carry a criminal liability for waste of resources and funds.  Instead of imposing sanctions, the SEWRC approves the business plan of the water supply company allowing the increase of the price. That is why I think that the SEWRC is afraid to disclose the business plans o the Bulgarian water supply companies.

You have requested from the National Revenue Agency – Sliven a list of the labor contracts by profession and positions as classified by the National Professions Classificator from the Water Supply Company – Sliven for the period 2003 – 2008. What do you expect to prove by these data?

The price of the service household water supply is formed by calculating 100% of the costs plus a certain amount of revenue. On one hand, we saw that the production costs include great amount of unbilled water. On another hand, the price can be increased if the salaries of the employees are increased.
In general, the quality of the water in Sliven is bad. There is not a wastewater treatment plant, the drinking water is disinfected by chlorination. We wanted to know the level of qualification of the workers doing the disinfection and if they were trained to chlorinate. We wanted to make all this information public and to understand id the quality of the service corresponds to the price that the company sets.

What is the purpose of this long term battle?

To bring a collective claim for pecuniary damages against the water supply company. This is an instrument of the Anglo-Saxon law. The battle we fight, however, aims at the registration of a national consumer organization of water supply and sanitation services. Thus we will be allowed to participate in the sessions of the regulator as an interested party. We want to launch a website and publish all the business plans of the water supply companies, which used to be an obligation of the regulator. It was transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (by the Law on Water). However, such a register is not launched . So our desire and goal are using the APIA to create a national database for water and sewerage services. The access to information litigation is a tool that will help figure out whether the model devised by the state to manage the water sector is the best. I think it is not. There are not reports on the implementation of the business plans, there are no mechanisms for exercising civil control over their implementation, and the state control is low. We want to open the system as the water supply service reflects on the population in a social, health and economic way.

April 2010

This case is part of the book "Civil Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 stories of NGOs)" published by AIP within the implementation of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information” supported with a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).

The whole responsibility for the content shall be taken by the Access to Information Programme Foundaiton and it cannot be assumed under any circumstances that the document reflects the official stance of the  Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Programme for NGO support in Bulgaria.