27
DOI: 10.17573/cepar.2021.2.02 1.01 Original scientific article
Citizens’ Attitudes Towards 
Local Services Accountability and 
Transparency – The Case of the 
Sarajevo Canton
Lejla Lazović-Pita
University of Sarajevo, School of Economics and Business, Bosnia and Herzegovina
lejla.lazovic@efsa.unsa.ba
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9421-1842
Velma Pijalović
University of Sarajevo, School of Economics and Business, Bosnia and Herzegovina
velma.tahmaz@efsa.unsa.ba
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9676-5408
Lamija Šćeta
University of Sarajevo, School of Economics and Business, Bosnia and Herzegovina
lamija.sceta@efsa.unsa.ba
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0410-0311
Almir Peštek
University of Sarajevo, School of Economics and Business, Bosnia and Herzegovina
almir.pestek@efsa.unsa.ba
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5958-4993
Received: 9. 6. 2021
Revised: 24. 9. 2021
Accepted: 19. 10. 2021
Published: 30. 11. 2021
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the perceived downward 
accountability and transparency of two public services – water supply and 
sewage and local road maintenance – in the Sarajevo Canton in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina (BiH).
Design/Methodology/Approach: An opinion survey1 on a sample of 250 
respondents and four binomial regressions were conducted to measure 
the factors that affect the perceived downward accountability and trans-
parency of the two public services.
Findings: The results of binomial logit regressions indicate that in terms 
of perceived accountability and transparency of water supply and sew-
1 The authors are grateful to Ms Amra Golic, MA, for collecting the data.
Lazović-Pita, L., Pijalović, V., Šćeta, L., Peštek, A. (2021). Citizens’ Attitudes Towards 
Local Services Accountability and Transparency – The Case of the Sarajevo Canton. 
Central European Public Administration Review, 19(2), pp. 27–43
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202128
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
age, significant variables include gender, education, and satisfaction with 
the price the respondents pay for such service. Significant variables for 
perceived local road maintenance accountability include satisfaction with 
regular and winter local road maintenance, while for perceived transpar-
ency an additional significant variable is education.
Academic contribution to the field: Although publications and literature 
dealing with the implementation of New Public Management in devel-
oped countries are plentiful, this is not the case in transition countries. 
The paper examines the case of the Sarajevo Canton and contributes to 
the research of perceived downward accountability and transparency. It 
may serve as a basis for further studies on public sector management in 
other local communities or small transition countries.
Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the limited empirical litera-
ture regarding the perceived accountability and transparency and sug-
gests ways to improve such.
Keywords: public services, perceived accountability, perceived transparency, 
citizens, Sarajevo Canton, binomial logit regression
JEL: H41, H83, L32
1 Introduction
The academic interest in and therefore literature that deals with the public 
sector performance and public sector management has had an exponential 
growth among researchers worldwide. The theory under the New Public Man-
agement (NPM) behind the empirical testing was first introduced by Hood 
(1991) in the UK and then in the rest of the world (Osborne and McLaughlin, 
2005, p. 19). The theory itself originates from the need to reform the public 
sector and therefore public administration under Thatcherism that extend-
ed into NPM under plural state (Osborne and McLaughlin, 2005, p.19). Even 
though the theory itself is multi-dimensional and its scope has been expand-
ing ever since its introduction, the overall idea behind it remains the same 
- the importance of the efficient, equitable, accountable, and transparent 
provision of public services has been set, measured, and evaluated as gov-
ernment’s priority around the world. During the process of evolution of the 
NPM, the concept itself has been under debates and discussions, which are 
still prevailing.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a small transition country, lags behind the eco-
nomic and integration process towards the EU and the national statistics is 
either unavailable or poor in quality. In a study from 2017, authors estimate 
that there are 650 public companies in BiH (Draganić et al., 2017, p. 77). Based 
upon the analysis of the availability and contents of a sample of 100 public 
companies and their web sites, the authors conclude that a significant num-
ber of public companies do not have a web site and the websites of those that 
do are poor in quality of the available data, which implies low levels of both 
accountability and transparency (Draganić et al., 2017, p. 78). As evidence of 
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/2021 29
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
the slow transition process, Cegar and Parodi (2019, p. 7) in their research 
established that there are more than 550 public companies operating in BiH 
which inevitably have a significant macroeconomic impact on BiH economy.
Therefore, evaluating the perceived downward accountability and perceived 
transparency for the first time under such circumstances in the agent-princi-
pal setting is of great importance since it builds up to the seminal works of 
Draganić et al. (2017) and Cegar and Parodi (2019) for the BiH case. Our analy-
sis is conducted in the Sarajevo Canton, which is the capital of BiH and serves 
as the main administrative, financial, and economic centre of the country. By 
using a method of a survey, we test the perceived downward accountability 
and perceived transparency in the provision of water supply and sewage ser-
vices and local road maintenance in the Sarajevo Canton. Therefore, we set 
two main hypotheses that we wish to test empirically:
H1: Respondents’ socio-demographic factors together with their attitudes to-
wards selected public services affect the perceived downward accountability 
in their provision.
H2: Respondents’ socio-demographic factors together with their attitudes 
towards selected public services affect the perceived transparency in their 
provision.
In the next sections, we provide the literature review and brief explanation 
of the position of the Sarajevo Canton in BiH. Research methodology section 
presents aims and objectives of the research, research design and data collec-
tion with the explanation of the research model and the variables that were 
used in four binomial logit regression models. The data analysis, main find-
ings, and discussion together with research limitations section serves as a ba-
sis for the final chapter conclusions.
1.1 Literature review
The interest in efficient, equitable, accountable, and transparent provision 
of public goods and services has always occupied the interest of academia 
and researchers. The theoretical background regarding our research builds 
on the NPM, which was first introduced by Hood (1991) for the UK case and 
later disseminated and tested in other countries as well (for example, Hood 
and Jackson, 1991 for Australia or Osborne and Gaebler, 1992, for the USA). 
After firstly being introduced and examined in the Anglo-Saxon world, the 
NPM continues to be re-examined in theory and practice across the world too 
(Osborne and McLaughlin, 2005, p. 19; Barzelay, 2005, p. 27). An overview 
of the developments, contributions, and an ongoing debate of the NPM to 
public management and to public services started in the works of Osborne 
and McLaughlin (2005), but the discussion regarding the comprehensiveness 
of the NPM is still evolving and ongoing. The work of McCourt (2005, p. 240) 
re-examines the actual contribution of the NPM theory to its application in 
developing countries especially with the idea behind the ‘one size fits all’ con-
cept introduced by the Washington Consensus.
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202130
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
Accountability and transparency as key concepts under NPM have been de-
fined and discussed in the works of several authors. Hence et al. (2015, p. 
347) discuss several important aspects of both accountability and transpar-
ency under NPM in the example of English local communities, as well as the 
inevitable interaction between accountability and transparency in theory and 
practice. The authors also define accountability as a “relationship where the 
agent is accountable to the principal (citizens or a community) for its actions” 
(Ferry et al., 2015, p. 347). They highlight its importance as a two-way agent-
principal relationship, which can be exercised upwards (to a higher authority), 
downwards (to citizens or a community), or sideways (as part of a contract 
that has been agreed for mutual benefit).
Hood (2010, p. 989) provides a definition of transparency explained as “ac-
tions (decisions, rules, and information) undertaken by an agent that are vis-
ible from the outside”. Lyrio et al. (2018, p. 518) contribute to the definition 
of transparency in the public sector by referring specifically to the actions 
that the government undertakes so that the information is available to the 
external actors. The works of Ferry et al., (2015) also evaluated and discussed 
the concept of transparency, which was specifically analysed in its interaction 
with accountability within different worldviews. According to their findings, 
the downward accountability and transparency would match the Egalitar-
ian view and the concept of accountability and transparency being ‘Siamese 
twins’ (Ferry et al., 2015, p. 352).
Hence, these concepts occupy the interest of authors around the world in 
several different areas, for example:
– The application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in the example of US 
school districts to measure input-output efficiency and in turn improving 
managerial control systems and public sector accountability (Chalos and 
Cherian, 1995);
– The theoretical discussion regarding the concepts introduced by the NPM, 
specifically the debate regarding citizen vs. consumer and the following 
practical discussion applied in the case of two countries – the UK as a devel-
oped and Nicaragua as a developing country (Myers and Lacey, 1996);
– The discussion and the debate (as the NPM theory suggests) about public 
sector performance management and its success in increasing government 
accountability by using the evidence from the administrative data (Hein-
rich, 2002);
– The two-case study analysis of the benefits justifying a tailored approach 
to system dynamics modelling in the public sector. The idea was to improve 
performance and foster decision makers’ accountability (Bianchi, 2010) 
specifically applied in the Italian case (Bianchi et al., 2010);
– The analysis and possible contribution of performance evaluation pro-
gramme ‘Democratic Review of Administrative and Business Style’ (DRABS) 
in Wuhan in central China that could help build horizontal accountability 
and enhance vertical accountability (So, 2014);
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/2021 31
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
– The nonparametric analysis of public sector transparency and countries’ en-
vironmental performance in the sample of 49 countries across 1995-2000 
period and an inverted ‘U’-shape relationship between countries’ public 
sector transparency levels and their environmental performance (Halkos 
and Tzeremes, 2014);
– The analysis of an exploration of the drivers and utility of performance re-
porting in the example of water agency in Australia that implemented a 
disclosure index to, inter alia, contribute to public accountability objectives 
(Tan and Egan, 2018);
– The analysis of accountability in higher education institutions in Korea in 
the works of Choi and Chun (2020);
– The analysis of how public accountability fully mediates the relationship 
between performance management system and organizational perfor-
mance in Vietnamese public sector (Tran and Nguyen, 2020);
– The analysis of environmental accountability of public sector entities in 
pursuing internationally funded development projects in Sri Lanka and the 
following environmental sustainability or continuous environmental degra-
dation (de Silva et al., 2020).
Apart from the aforementioned works, the theoretical concept of the NPM 
was also empirically tested in seminal works of Andrews and Van de Walle 
(2013, p. 762) in the sample of English local communities. The authors evalu-
ated the NPM through the lens of citizens’ perceptions of local service efficien-
cy, responsiveness, equity, and effectiveness. Since the NPM extensively dis-
cusses public-private relationship, the authors found a negative relationship 
between public-private relationships and citizens’ perceptions of efficiency, 
responsiveness, equity and effectiveness. However, the entrepreneurial stra-
tegic orientation and performance management have had positive association 
in citizens’ perceptions of local public services in all four dimensions (Andrews 
and Van de Walle, 2013, p. 778). After Andrews and Van de Walle (2013) paper, 
authors around the world started using surveys in the evaluation of citizen’s 
perception of several aspects of public goods and services. The term perceived 
accountability and perceived transparency were used in the works of Hvidman 
and Andersen (2016, p. 111) that applied a method of survey to evaluate the 
perceptions of public regarding the performance of hospitals.
Another interesting dimension of perceiving the concepts of accountability 
and transparency is linked to their interaction with the concept of corruption, 
which is an especially important factor in developing and emerging econo-
mies (Lyrio et al., 2018, p. 513). The authors provide an exhaustive literature 
overview of 63 papers over 1984-2013 period and conclude that there is a 
rise in the academic interest in the topic, but also the requirement regard-
ing greater interaction between the government and the society as well as a 
need for greater citizen participation. With respect to developing countries 
that evaluated the concepts of accountability and transparency in the public 
sector, a survey conducted by the Adeyeye and Adeyeye (2019, p. 318) in the 
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202132
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
sample of Nigerian public officials shows that combination of both account-
ability and transparency has a greater effect on service delivery than either 
concept individually. A survey among public servants was also used in the 
works of Šević (2005, p. 582), who analysed the process of performance man-
agement and measurement system-building in the public sector in the sam-
ple of managers/civil servants in Serbian local communities. Findings confirm 
the fact that the process of performance management and measurement 
system-building is still in its early stages in the region.
Similarly, the latest research on online local budget transparency of Croatian 
and Slovenian local communities (Ott et al., 2019, p. 167) indicates that the 
interest in assessing the determinants of transparency of public sector op-
erations are gaining prominence in Central and Eastern European countries 
too. Latest research by Ravšelj and Hodžić (2020, p.125) highlights the fact 
that public administration’s accountability and efficiency contribute towards 
business R&D activity in the EU. Zankina (2020, p. 89) for the case of Bulgaria 
assesses the success of public administration reform in the five dimensions 
where key two relate to accountability and transparency. The results show a 
delayed process with several identified obstacles.
From the literature review, we can determine that accountability and trans-
parency are multidimensional issues linked with concepts of efficiency. It is 
known that when economists test and measure the efficiency of provision of 
public goods and services, two approaches can be implemented (De Borger 
and Kerstens (1996): single public service efficiency measurement (for ex-
ample water services in Garcia-Sanchez, 2006 or refuse collection and street 
cleaning in Worthington and Dollery, 2000; Worthington and Dollery, 2001; 
Benito-Lopez et al., 2011) and the measurement of the overall (sub central) 
governments’ efficiency from a global perspective (for example, overview 
provided in Narbón-Perpiñá and De Witte, 2018). In our work, we focus on the 
former by evaluating the perceived downward accountability and perceived 
transparency in two public services, water supply and sewage and local road 
maintenance, both provided as local public services. Bearing in mind the con-
clusions by Cegar and Parodi (2019) for BiH that the reforms and improve-
ments in the governance frameworks of public companies are crucial to the 
enhancement of accountability and transparency and could in fact increase 
the BiH’s GDP by three percent annually, we analyse these concepts in detail.
1.2 The position of Sarajevo Canton in BiH
BiH as a former Yugoslav country is currently constitutionally organised into 
two Entities, Federation of BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), and one dis-
trict (Brčko District). Its capital has always been Sarajevo, which under FBiH 
constitution belongs to the Sarajevo Canton. The latest Census data (2013) in-
dicate that there are 3,531,159 persons living in BiH. Sarajevo Canton occupies 
approx. 4.9% of the territory of FBiH and 2.5% of BiH territory. There are some 
420,296 inhabitants living in the Sarajevo Canton (or 11.9% of BiH population), 
which makes Sarajevo the largest BiH city population-wise (Federal Institute of 
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/2021 33
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
Statistics, 2020, p. 13). Sarajevo Canton consists of nine municipalities where 
four inner-city municipalities (Centar, Stari Grad, Novo Sarajevo, and Novi 
Grad) form the City of Sarajevo, and the remaining five (Vogošća, Ilijaš, Ilidža, 
Trnovo and Hadžići) are outer city municipalities. Sarajevo Canton communal 
structure and the provision of public services are not uniformly organised. 
They are a combination of Cantonal public service providers, local community 
public services and/or private sector providers sometimes subcontracted by 
local community. Water supply and sewage as well as local road maintenance 
are no exception. As shown in Table 1, both water supply and sewage and local 
road maintenance are provided by Cantonal public service provider in all inner-
city municipalities and Vogošća whereas in other outer-city municipalities they 
are both a combination of several public and private service providers.
Table 1. Water supply and sewage and local road maintenance service 
provision in the Sarajevo Canton
Municipality
Water supply and 
sewage service provision
Local road maintenance 
service provision
Centar C C
Stari Grad C C
Novo 
Sarajevo
C C
Novi Grad C C
Vogošća C C
Ilijaš C; M C
Ilidža C; M C; M
Trnovo C; M C; M; P
Hadžići C; M C; M; P
Legend: C- Sarajevo Canton public service provider; M-municipal public service 
provider; P-private service provider subcontracted by municipality.
Source: authors.
2 Research methodology
2.1 Aims and objectives of the research
The research deals with determination of factors affecting the perceived 
downward accountability and perceived transparency in the case of selected 
public services in the Sarajevo Canton. We have selected two public services 
to which we wish to test the perceived downward accountability and per-
ceived transparency: water supply and sewage and local road maintenance.
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202134
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
Therefore, the main objectives of our research are to provide answers to two 
questions:
Ob1: What factors affect the perceived downward accountability in the provi-
sion of public services, namely, water supply and sewage and local road main-
tenance?
Ob2: What factors affect the perceived transparency in the provision of public 
services, namely, water supply and sewage and local road maintenance?
2.2 Research design and data collection
In the period January 2020 to March 2020, we conducted a public self-ad-
ministrated online survey by using social media (Google docs). We acquired 
250 responses by using the exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling 
technique. The relatively small sample size will be used to determine the re-
lationship at the level of the sample as results cannot be generalized at the 
level of the Sarajevo Canton’s population. The situation represents the main 
limitation of our research, which we plan to conduct when more financial re-
sources are available for such research. The survey was specifically localised 
to the Sarajevo Canton because we wanted to test citizens’ perceptions re-
garding water supply and sewage and local road maintenance in the largest 
city in BiH. As indicated in Table 1, water supply and sewage as well as local 
road maintenance in the Sarajevo Canton are predominantly provided by the 
Cantonal public service provider in both inner and outer-city municipalities.
The structured questionnaire was divided into three segments: the first part 
related to socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents; the second 
part related to respondents’ perceptions regarding their (dis)satisfaction with 
local road maintenance especially during winter; the third part related to the 
respondents’ perceptions regarding their (dis)satisfaction with water supply 
and sewage maintenance and the price they pay for such service.
As a selected method of testing the perceived downward accountability and the 
perceived transparency, we have chosen binomial logit regression. We have con-
ducted four binomial logit regressions, two for each analysed public services. In 
the next section, we provide data analysis and results of the conducted research.
3 Data analysis, main results and discussion with research 
limitations
3.1 Data analysis and model specification
In Table 2, we provide summary statistics of the observed sample. If we sum-
marize the socio-demographic characteristics of our respondents’ sample, we 
can determine that more than 70 percent of our respondents are relatively 
young people under the age of 34, mostly females (almost 64.8 percent) liv-
ing in the outer-city municipalities (54.8 percent), who are employed (56.8 
percent) and have completed higher education (at least graduate studies, 
53.6 percent, Table 2).
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/2021 35
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
Table 2. Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents’ sample
Variable in %
Respondents’ age by group
Under 24 34.8
25–34 35.6
35–44 17.6
45–54 10.4
55+ 1.6
Respondents’ gender
Male 35.2
Female 64.8
Respondents’ municipality of residence 
Centar Sarajevo 9.2
Stari Grad 8.0
Novo Sarajevo 12.8
Novi Grad 13.2
Vogošća 7.6
Ilijaš 10.
Trnovo 2.4
Hadžći 15.6
Ilidža 19.2
Outside Sarajevo Canton 2.0
Respondents’ employment status
Employed 56.8
Unemployed (Unemployed, Student, 
Pensioner)
43.2
Respondents’ education
Primary and secondary 28.8
Higher education 53.6
Master, PhD 17.6
No. of observations: 250.
Source: authors.
Bearing in mind that satisfaction with public services determines the tendency 
to emigrate from BiH (Begović et. al., 2020) we asked respondents about the 
level of satisfaction with public services. The respondents’ satisfaction with 
public services were assessed by using Likert 5-point scale where 1 indicates 
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202136
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
-“highly dissatisfied” with service, 2 -indicates “dissatisfied”, 3 “neutral” (neither 
satisfied nor dissatisfied), 4 indicates – “satisfied” and 5 – “highly satisfied”).
Table 3. The summary of citizens’ responses regarding their satisfaction  
with public services
Q. 
No.
Question/
Statement
No. 
of 
obs.
1 2 3 4 5 Median
No* 
(%)
Yes* 
(%)
Q1 Please indicate your 
satisfaction level 
with the local road 
maintenance in 
your municipality 
of residence 
(maintenance 
relates to timely 
repairs and regular 
cleaning)?
244 20 66 86 54 18 3 54 46
Q2 Please indicate 
your satisfaction 
with the local 
road maintenance 
during winter times 
(maintenance 
relates to timely 
snow cleaning, 
removal of ice, etc.)?
245 24 70 77 61 13 3 56 44
Q3 Please indicate 
your satisfaction 
with water supply 
and sewage 
maintenance?
241 10 19 65 87 60 4 16 84
Q4 Please indicate 
your satisfaction 
with the price you 
pay towards water 
supply and sewage 
service?
242 29 41 79 59 34 3 43 57
* Yes/No responses exclude neutral responses (3) and are summarized as follows: 1 
and 2 are summarized as ‘no’ and 4 and 5 as ‘yes’.
Source: authors.
From Table 3, in our sample, we can determine that respondents are mostly 
dissatisfied with local road maintenance in regular terms and during winter 
times too. However, they are relatively satisfied with the water supply and 
sewage public service as well as the price they pay for the service.
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Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
We have estimated four statements as dependent variables in four binomial 
logit regressions. The dependent variables were statements regarding re-
spondents’ perceptions about the downward perceived accountability and 
the perceived transparency in two sets of public services: water supply and 
sewage service, and local road maintenance. Since the dependent variables 
were asked as yes/no questions, Table 4 summarizes the responses coded as 
dichotomous variables, with response ‘no’ was coded as zero, and ‘yes’ as one.
Table 4. Descriptive statistics and explanation of dependent and  
independent variables
Q. 
code
Dependent variables
N. 
obs.
No 
(0)
Yes 
(1)
DAW
Does water supply and sewage service 
provider conduct its operations 
accountably?
238 63.9 36.1
DTW
Does water supply and sewage service 
provider conduct its operations 
transparently? 
244 64.8 35.2
DAL
Does local road maintenance service 
provider conduct its operations 
accountably?
241 63.1 36.9
DTL
Does local road maintenance service 
provider conduct its operations 
transparently?
237 58.2 41.8
Source: authors.
Independent variables were coded as follows:
– Education: dichotomous variable, where respondents with at least univer-
sity level were coded as ‘1’ and respondents with degrees up to university 
level by ‘0’;
– Gender: dichotomous variable (zero or one), where male respondents were 
coded by “1” and women coded by “0”;
– Statements: “Please indicate your satisfaction level with the price you pay to-
wards water supply and sewage service” – Water price and “Please indicate 
your satisfaction level with water supply and sewage maintenance” – Main wa-
ter were coded as binary variables used only in two water supply and sew-
age service related regressions whereby responses “highly dissatisfied” and 
“ dissatisfied” were coded as zero (0), neutral responses were not consid-
ered and responses “satisfied” and “highly satisfied” were coded as one (1);
– Statements: “Please indicate your satisfaction with the local road mainte-
nance in your municipality of residence (maintenance relates to timely repairs 
and regular cleaning)?” – Main road and “Please indicate your satisfaction 
with the local road maintenance during winter times (maintenance relates to 
timely snow cleaning, removal of ice, etc.)?” – Winter road were coded as bi-
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202138
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
nary variables used only in two local road maintenance related regressions 
whereby responses “highly dissatisfied” and “dissatisfied” were coded as 
zero (0), neutral responses were not considered, and responses “satisfied” 
and “highly satisfied” were coded as one (1).
3.2 Main results of the research
After the explanation of the used dependent variables as well as the set of 
independent variables, the regression results are provided in Table 5.
Table 5. Regression results for four models with results from 
sensitivity analysis
Accountability, 
water (Model 1)
Transparency, 
water 
(Model 2)
Accountability, 
roads 
(Model 3)
Transparency, 
roads 
(Model 4)
Gender 1.7507** 1.0906* 0.8464 0.7949
Education -1.2274* -0.6788* -0.8436 -1.4029*
Water price 2.7046** 2.6603**
Main water 2.0503 0.3649
Main road 1.8130** 1.8048**
Winter road 2.8261** 2.2712**
Const. -4.0998** -2.1959** -2.9426** -2.2438**
No. of OBS 121 119 121 119
Linktest LR 
chi2(2)
58.53 42.16 80.97 67.96
p-value 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Hosmer-
Lemeshow 
test
HL chi2 HL(4)=1.45 HL(3)=0.36 HL(6)=4.43 HL(5)=5.02
p-value 0.8347 0.9484 0.6187 0.4139
Average VIF 3.88 3.85 3.50 3.51
*p<0.05, **p<0.01.
Source: authors.
Results of logistic regression in Model 1 (at 1 percent significance level) indi-
cate that men are more likely to agree with the statement that water supply 
and sewage service provider is accountable in its operations than women. At 
5 percent significance level, in Model 2, men are more likely than women to 
agree with the transparency statement in regard to water supply and sewage.
At 5 percent significance level, respondents with higher level of education 
are less likely to agree with statements that water supply and sewage service 
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/2021 39
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
provider is accountable in its operations as well as transparent (Model 1 and 
2). Respondents who expressed greater satisfaction with the price they pay 
towards water supply and sewage service are more likely to agree with state-
ments that water supply and sewage service provider is accountable in its op-
erations as well as transparent (at 0.01 significance level, Model 1 and 2).
Results of Model 4 regarding local road maintenance indicate that respondents 
with higher level of education are less likely to agree with the statement that 
local road maintenance service provider is transparent in its operations (at 0.05 
significance level). Respondents who expressed greater satisfaction with local 
road maintenance and with winter road maintenance are more likely to agree 
with statements that local road maintenance service provider is accountable 
and transparent in its operations (at 0.01 significance level, Model 3 and 4).
To test the suitability of the specification of our models, we used the Link-
test and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. The results of the Linktest indicate that 
the selected models are well specified (Table 5). Similarly, the results of the 
Hosmer - Lemeshow test indicate that the selected models fit the data well 
(Table 5). We also examined the presence of multicollinearity through the as-
sessment of inflation variance factors (VIF). The results showed that there are 
no variables that cause a serious problem of multicollinearity (VIF<10). The 
average VIF values of all explanatory variables are between 3.50 and 3.88 for 
the considered models (Table 5).
3.3 Discussion and research limitations
Even though our results can only be interpreted at the level of the analysed 
sample, our results are complementary to the results provided in the works of 
Andrews and Van de Walle (2013) in the example of English local communities 
tested on several NPM issues of perceived efficiency, effectiveness, respon-
siveness, and equity. This especially relates to the scientific contribution in the 
relationship between perceived accountability and efficiency. Similar to the 
results of Andrews and Van de Walle (2013), we have confirmed that the re-
spondents’ assessment of efficiency (the statement about the price of water 
supply and sewage service) contributes towards the perceived accountability 
of the local service provider. Also, in our brief analysis we have discovered 
that the socio-demographic factors as well as overall (dis)satisfaction of citi-
zens or consumers (Myers and Lacey, 1996) are very important factors in as-
sessing the downward perceived accountability and perceived transparency.
Although the presented research confirmed some former findings that so-
cio-demographic factors as well as respondents’ overall (dis)satisfaction with 
selected public services are very important in assessing the perceived down-
ward accountability and transparency, our results ought to be interpreted 
with caution. The primary limitation of our research is related to the sample 
size and the inability for generalization. Further research needs to base the 
study on a larger sample size in order to acquire more robust and accurate 
results. Other limitations relate to included variables. Similar to previous aca-
demic research (Myers and Lacey, 1996; Andrews and Van de Walle, 2013; 
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202140
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
Hvidman and Andersen, 2016), future research might include several other 
variables, which unfortunately are not publicly available or currently acces-
sible in BiH. These especially relate to financial and economic performance in-
dicators of the selected public services. Also, as in Andrews and Van de Walle 
(2013), the potential results (and variables) of a survey conducted among em-
ployees of several other public services might be added to the research so 
that it could contribute towards the evaluation of other NPM aspects such 
as efficiency, responsiveness, equity, and effectiveness. Finally, depending on 
available financial resources for such research, the questionnaire conducted 
in local communities across BiH would create more further-reaching results 
and would substantially contribute towards current perceptions about public 
service accountability and transparency in BiH.
4 Conclusions
The accountability and transparency concepts developed under NPM umbrel-
la are gaining an increased interest among academics, practitioners, and poli-
cy makers. Accountability and transparency are two important pillars of good 
governance in both public and private companies. Although private compa-
nies are not completely without public oversight regarding their efficiency, 
accountability and transparency, their main responsibility towards successful 
business operations is aimed at their stakeholders and employees. In the pub-
lic sector, related reforms and reforms of public companies specifically are, 
inter alia, aimed at increasing citizens’ well-being. During this process, ques-
tionnaires about citizens’ perceptions are used as an important tool in evalu-
ating and assessing the success in providing public goods and services. This 
is especially important in the (post)transition countries, where accountability 
and transparency are important tools for tackling corruption.
Our survey was conducted in BiH capital in the example of two public service 
providers: water supply and sewage, and local road maintenance. The results 
indicate that respondents are relatively not satisfied with winter road mainte-
nance and relatively satisfied with water supply and sewage maintenance and 
the price of the corresponding service they pay.
A conducted opinion survey related to water supply and sewage service 
and local road maintenance has showed very interesting results regarding 
the downward perceived accountability and perceived transparency. Our 
research confirmed both of our hypotheses and indicated that socio-demo-
graphic factors (primarily the respondents’ education) as well as overall (dis)
satisfaction with public services are important factors in assessing the down-
ward perceived accountability and perceived transparency. We also find that 
the respondents’ assessment of efficiency (the statement about the price of 
water supply and sewage service) contributes towards the downward per-
ceived accountability and transparency. Some limitations of our research in-
clude the sample size, other possible use of currently unavailable variables as 
well as geographical reach of the study.
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/2021 41
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Local Services Accountability and Transparency: 
The Case of the Sarajevo Canton
However, the findings show the multi-dimensional nature of the accountabil-
ity and transparency concepts as well as their coherence with the concept of 
efficiency. Hence, the reforms in the public companies ought to be compre-
hensive and multi-dimensional. Apart from the measures that directly lead to 
increased accountability and transparency (for example, public data availabil-
ity or legally binding regulation, etc.), it is necessary to introduce measures 
that will result in improved quality of public (goods and) services that ought 
to satisfy citizens’ needs and expectations and finally bring the efficient use 
of resources closer to citizens (consumers).
Central European Public Administration Review, Vol. 19, No. 2/202142
Lejla Lazović Pita, Velma Pijalović, Lamija Šćeta, Almir Peštek
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