In fact, as the above government statement claims, most
parastatals have used commercial profitability — discounted cash
flow — as their investment yardstick. Little thought seems to have
been given to the appropriateness of this technique in the Tan-
zania context. It is, however, apparent that in a situation of high
protective tariffs or hidden subsidies and monopolistic market
structures in which many small disorganised buyers or sellers must
deal with large parastatal firms, often on a contractual basis, the
use of D.C.F. will almost inevitably give results which have little
meaning in social terms and can be used to justify almost any
project. In addition, this measure of desirability favours ‘building
on the best’ to be used Gurleys expression, which summarises the
way in which the logic of internal and external economies per-
petuates and magnifies inequalities of wealth and opportunity at
the personal or national level.?2®

Tanzania’s nine towns policy in a recognition of this danger and
an attempt to restore regional balance to the economy. But even
this is a partial attempt since the moving of industry away from
Dar es Salaam to upcountry towns does not in itself consitute
regional planning but simply one small aspect of it. There is still a
need for comprehensive regional plans but again these presuppose
the existence of a national development strategy.

Public investment decisions should therefore be based on
criteria which put social considerations very much to the fore and
not simply on D.C.F. which, while having serious social and
political implications, does not explicitly recognise any other ob-
jectives than profit maximisation. Such criteria can only be
derived- once the Government has decided precisely how best the
‘economy should develop in future if socialist goals are to be
achieved. Attempts by parastatals to develop their own criteria,
however well-intentioned, can be no substitute for nationally
agreed ends and means and as a result, may create confusion.

Mramba and Mwansasu claim that the N.D.C. does in fact con-
sider a number of different criteria before investing.?” These are
broken down into primary criteria which must be satisfied by all
projects and secondary criteria which must be considered for all
projects. The primary criteria are:

(a) Profitability

(b) National Cost/Benefit
(c) Foreign Exchange Effects