ght about a disorganization
of the material and technical supply for enterprises, with adverse
effects on productivity and output. It has been responsible for a
general lag in the economy's performance in relation to official plans.

The deficiency of the traditional system of central planning was
officially recognized in 1967, when a decision was made by the National
Party Conference to raise the quality of planning to the level demanded
by the needs of a modern industrial state. This aim was to be achieved
by granting a larger degree of autonomy to individual enterprises
while, at the same time, maintaining and even strengthening the
directing role of the central plan. The prolonged and intensive
discussion engendered by the PCR decision has brought to light many
flaws and proposals for change but has not provided a clear insight into
the current planning process.

Modifications of the traditional pattern have taken place as a result of
organizational and administrative changes introduced after 1967. The
intended adoption of a new system, however, that would take into account
market relationships and give greater weight to the needs of consumers
has been delayed by differences of views among economists and officials
on essential elements of the system, by disagreement on the nature of
such basic concepts as productivity, economic efficiency, and profit,
and by the need for a prior reform of the price system. A draft of a new
planning law was reported to be in preparation toward the end of 1971.

As a means of decentralizing planning and mastering the intractable
supply problem, the task of coordinating requirements with supplies was
delegated to the centrals (see Glossary), trusts, and other enterprise
associations and, ultimately, to the enterprises themselves by a law on
economic contracts enacted in December 1969. Under the law, industrial
and trade enterprises must enter into contracts with suppliers for all
products and services needed to fulfill the tasks of the next year's
economic plan. In theory, the demands of final consumers for consumption
and capital goods would determine the nature of the contracts through
all stages of production down to the producers of raw materials. This
has not been the case in practice.

Most contracts must be concluded at least six months before the
beginning of the plan year because they are supposed to serve as the
basis for developing the final version of the annual plan; th