The expatriate staff did not show any capacity for passing on
their knowledge to Tanzanians and virtually no training was done,
so that when O.C.C. left, Mr. Tara Singh had to be called out of
retirement to run the company again for a period. So much for
Mr. Romnicianu’s team of ‘world leaders in managerial expertise
and knowhow’ and ‘the service to the Tanzanian consumer’. The
management provided by this major international firm was
initially incompetent, and subsequently ruthless in taking what it
could. This management agreement simply delayed the develop-
ment of a Tanzanian construction company for the three years in
which it operated.

The Tanzanian members of the Board of Directors and the
Operations Division of N.D.C. can take some of the blame for not
noticing sooner what was going on. But what hope would a
Board of Directors have in checking a management not capable of
running the company efficiently in the interests of the State, and
yet willing to stop to considerable depths to cover themselves?

When it came to actually removing O.C.C. the forces which
lined up for their defense were formidable. They included the
lawyer who had drafted the original agreement, the Board of
N.D.C. various Government officials who did not want to see too
much revealed, bankers and economists who pleaded that if too
much was made of this case Tanzania’s good name abroad would
be spoilt, and of course the O.C.C. management itself supported
by the Dutch Ambassador.

These forces could not prevent O.C.C. from being forced to
leave. But they did inhabit Government from taking its most for-
ceful line of action which would have been to bankrupt the com-
pany (while allowing the receiver to keep an organisation intact to
complete the work in progress). This might not have saved the
Government money; but it would have revealed just how badly
MECCO had been run and has in business like the other in-
stitutions had been in supporting it. This would have been of im-
mense educational value to the workers, to Tanzanian ad-
ministrators and managers and indeed to other foreign companies
tempted to manipulate management agreements in the same sort
of way.

And further, as if to show that management agreements as a
whole were not threatened, the Government announcement ter-
minating the agreement indicated an intention to sien another

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