The Concept of Sustainable Finance and the Issue of Financial Stability in Local Government Units

The purpose of this study is to approximate the essence and importance of the concept of sustainable finances and the issue of financial stability of local government. Nowadays, traditional finance is evolving towards sustainable and responsible finance, which approaches the issue of financial results and its components, risk and investments in a more comprehensive way, taking into account the social, environmental and economic aspects in the decision-making process. The following methods have been used: literature analysis and the method of a diagnostic survey using questionnaires. The study included local government units located on the territory of 5 voivodeships of the Eastern Poland macroregion: Lubelskie, Podkarpackie, Podlasie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmińsko-Mazurskie. The population surveyed includes 210 local government units, consisting of 70% of urban-rural communes and cities with poviat rights and 20% of rural communes. The analysis of the obtained results allowed the researchers to discover the opinions of the main accountants (treasurers) in the area of financial stability of peripherally located local governments.