Casquinho, ConstançaEsposito, Marco2017-04-242019-06-012016-06-02http://hdl.handle.net/10362/20542CEMSThe role of regulators in the public sector has never been so challenging. Their function of identifying and amending costs misallocations within operators’ financial statements is constantly threatened by operational inefficiencies and abuses of the local government funds. While encouraging investments, regulators have to deal with the local economic and political situation. Portugal is suffering from a critical fiscal recession that is alarmingly constraining the government budget. On top of this, the municipalities are lowering tariffs to gain citizens’ consensus, creating unsustainable public debts. This paper aims at facilitating the detection of these flaws through the implementation of a financial model, to in turn enhance operators’ sustainability while protecting citizens’ interests.engERSARPublic water sectorCost analysisQuantitative managementmaster thesis201525283