The procedure for the partial municipalization of the Water and Sewerage Company has begun. Today, a meeting was held between district governor Krzysztof Konopka, PWiK director Józef Burniak and the city’s deputy mayor Karol Stasik. In the deputy mayor’s presence, the district governor and the director signed a document that ultimately dispels doubts about the possibility of losing €11 million from the ISPA Fund. The price of the partial municipalization of PWiK’s assets will be a four-percent increase in the wastewater collection charge. This results from the need to pay tax to the State Treasury. The tax will be paid by PWiK and results from the fact that the company manages assets transferred to the municipality.
The PWiK director has already applied to the Minister of the State Treasury for consent to renounce part of the assets—the sewerage system—in favor of the State Treasury. This consent is necessary because PWiK manages assets that had previously been transferred into the ownership of that company. PWiK must relinquish its rights to them so that the voivode can transfer the sewerage section to the city. The condition preceding the transfer of the sewerage section to the municipality is the temporary acceptance of this part of the assets by the district governor. The district governor, acting as the representative of the State Treasury, will then sign a similar agreement transferring the assets to the city mayor. This stage guarantees that receipt of the ISPA funds will not be jeopardized.
“Today we are signing a document that begins the first stage of a complicated municipalization procedure,” says PWiK director Józef Burniak. The notarial deed signed by the director and the Bolesławiec district governor states that the properties at 48 Graniczna Street will be transferred to the urban municipality—that is, all plots on which the wastewater treatment plant is located, as well as the wastewater treatment plant facilities themselves, sewer lines and house connections of the municipal sewerage system—in other words, the company’s entire sewerage section. “We are also transferring the right of perpetual usufruct of the plots and three plots purchased by the company, meaning those owned by it,” adds director Józef Burniak.
Separating the sewerage section from PWiK and transferring it to the urban municipality will not create a situation in which one entity supplies water and another collects wastewater. “The company will service assets owned by the municipality,” explains deputy mayor Karol Stasik. This is nothing new, since until now some of the assets managed by PWiK have been owned by both the urban and rural municipalities. As regards setting charges for water supply and wastewater collection, the final decision will still remain within the powers of the City Council. PWiK may request a price change, but the decision will be made by the City Council in an appropriate resolution.
The question of whether municipalization makes sense, even reinforced by the argument of a 4% increase in wastewater collection charges, does not withstand comparison with the amount available from ISPA.