agreement with another agent. And as if to show that no ill-will
or mistrust towards O.C.C. was intended, the Government
allowed them to be part of a consortium of Western firms which
was awarded the 234 million shillings tender for the Kidatu
Hydro-electric project.!!

What of MECCO Today?

Nearly two years after the departure of the Dutch it is still com-
pleting the projects tendered for shortly before they left. Several of
these are loss-makers. The overdraft is no smaller and the vehicle
fleet is running on chewing gum and string. Shortage of working
capital is restricting rapid progress on some projects, and ocon-
tributing to labour problem.!?

And yet progress is being made. The Dutch team has been
replaced by one handpicked man (individually recruited) who is
more sympathetic, hardworking and knowledgeable of the local
scene than any of the Dutch. Training of Tanzanians is going
ahead by sheer necessity, and for example, work on the thirty
million National Insurance Corporation Building is now being
directed entirely by Tanzanians. A cost control system has been
developed and is operating. Even the labour problems (which
relate to the difficulties of providing permanent work in a con-
struction company working in an unplanned environment, where,
for example, sudden shortages of cement are frequent) are being
tackled in an open manner.

These are the problems of today, and they are discussed at
greater length by Fred Bienefeld in this book. It has become
possible to discuss intelligently the problems of setting up a
nationalised construction company in Tanzania now that the
Dutch have gone.

The Kilimanjaro Hotel'?

The Kilimanjaro was independent Tanzania's first prestige
project. It appeared in the Three Years Plan (1961-64) where it
was noted that the Government had included it even though it
had not been recommended by detailed analysis of the Plan.'*

It was also one of the first projects to experience a cost over-
run. For the Plan envisaged an expenditure of 12 million shillings,
but the hotel that was actually built cost 32 million shillings.

The agreement to build was signed on October 14th 1961.

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