During the financial crises economic reviews were published regularly.Sir M. MacDonald, 1979 and 1981, Dewar, 49-70. In all economic reviews an acceptable economic rate of return and thus, in the eyes of the reviewers, a viable project, was presented to the financiers based on sunk-costs principles, that is to say that already invested funds and commitments were excluded from the cost-benefit analysis. Such an analysis, however, easily disguises serious underlying problems.Nijman 140. Nijman quotes a senior World Bank staff member: 'Sunk cost are a wonderful mechanism to generate high rate of return and justifying poring more money into a disastrous situation - and a good diversion from addressing the real problem-institutions. And combining this mechanism with an imagined glowing future for the project, one can have repeated rehabilitation projects for the same site-ongoing work ...But it is not fair to the nation or the farmers' (140) In the case of Bura all the reviews showed also that after the investment period, the project would still need a considerable annual subsidy from the government. In the most thorough and realistic review this subsidy was calculated at about Ksh20 million. The project was also very sensitive to changes in the project cost and yields. The same study also showed that the close-down of the project was possible for a one-off amount of Ksh 40 million.Dewar, 1984: 69. The closing down cost were for partially compensating the tenants and returning them to their area of origin. For different reasons the various parties never saw closing down the project as an option.Dewar, 1984: 69
