The_Open_Door_deel1

Note:
(1) Preliminary figures.
Author's research based on
- Economic Surveys, 1967-1978.
-353-
coincided with the start of the 1976 - 1980 Development Plan.
NoteworthV are the causes of the rise in expenditures and the
(relative) decrease in revenues. Increasing costs of living,
caused partly by an imported inflation, in 1975/1976 caused the
Government to increase the salaries of the civil service, a
decision which was also influenced by the booming revenues
from the iron ore sector and the Maritime Program in the
preceding year. The partial substitution of an elaborate system
of fringe benefits enjoyed by civil servants by raises in their
salaries further contributed to an accelerated rise in
personnel costs and recurrent expenditures. Large outlays on
projects with a questionable priority from the point of view
of development, combined with these increased personnel costs,
caused the total government expenditures to double from $ 133.1
million in 1975 to $ 266.0 million in the Fiscal Year 1977/78
(See Table 49).
Income from the concession sector which in 1975 still had represented
38.5 percent of domestic revenues fell to 20 percent in
1977 (see Table 36). The drop in revenues from the concession
sector coincided with the steeply increased expenditures. Lack
of control over both domestic revenues and expenditures subsequently
resulted in yearly increasing budget deficits. The budget
deficit expected for the Fiscal Year 1978/79 had reached
the $ 100 million mark and was practically equal to the total
annual government expenditures of less than five years before.
A significant portion of the expenditures of the late 197O's was
O.A.U. related. Estimates of the expenditures made in view of
the hosting of the O.A.U. Summit meeting vary roughly speaking
between $ 100 million and $ 200 million but is likely that the
latter figure will be the more correct one. These expenditures
include the costs of constructing and furnishing a Conference
Center, Hotel Africa, bungalows for the African Heads of State as
well as housing for their respective delegations, a new Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, and the purchase of a Boeing 737 Presidential
aircraft. Among the O.A.U. related expenditures on projects which
the country would anyhow have needed in the long run are a new
terminal building on the international airfieldj Robertsfield
International Airport, the resurfacing of the 42 miles of highway
between the international airport and the nation's capital, road
improvements on Bushrod Island ( a suburb of Monrovia which lies
on the way to the O.A.U. Conference Center in Virginia, some 24
miles from the capital). Further, a new (second) bridge across
the Mesurado River, linking "Crown Hill" in Monrovia with