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happened in a haphazard way. (This was the main reason why this
chapter was deliberately titled "Fiscal Performance vs.
Development Planning".)
The inability to develop a true fiscal policy is not only
explained by a lack of trained manpower but also by political
unwillingness. The priority of the President's political
"grandeur" over socio-economic development is to a large extent
responsible for the waste of public funds much needed for the
country's development. The concentration of power in the hands
of the President and the lack of a democratic participation of
the country's population in the legal, administrative and
financial affairs of the country only facilitated this choice.
A third conclusion is that the apparently unavoidable approaching
financial crisis will impose a heave drain on the country's
scarce financial resources unless revenue collections improve
significantly. A rescheduling of the nation's external debt may
again bring some relief as it did in 1963, but is not likely to
bring a solution to the financial problems. Austerity measures
may become unavoidable. The austerity measures taken in the
aftermath of the 1963 financial crisis were followed by a series
of strikes paralysing the (foreign owned) rubber plantations
and the mining companies. However, the 196O's brought increased
revenues from the iron ore mining companies which had
just gone into production (LAMCO and Bong Mines). There are no
such prospects for the 1980's since the most important investment
in the pipeline, L.I.S.C.O., has so far failed to materialise
whereas the continuation of LAMCO's mining operations
is not even guaranteed. This prospect may result in the scaling
down or even postponement of development programmes as the Government
will not be able to finance the recurrent costs of
these programmes.