• Institutional agreements for effective policy formulation and implementation; • Formulation and implementation of fiscal and monetary policy; and, • Implementation of other key sectoral policies that have a significant impact on the Ethiopian economy, such as the privatisation policy and investment policy. 348 The CRM observed that Ethiopia has comprehensive legislative frameworks that allow for sound and credible economic policy implementation, in a transparent manner. A number of gaps that need to be addressed to further consolidate achievements are identified below. 349 National Planning Institutional Arrangements: The CRM noted the evolution of the planning function within government. Two separate ministries - Finance (MoF) and Economic Development (MEDAC - have since merged to form the current Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED). The CRM was not able to establish the existence of any autonomous planning agency assuming, therefore, that MOFED is fully responsible for national macroeconomic planning and management. Prior to MOFED, the MOF was responsible for recurrent budgets, while planning and capital expenditure issues were under the purview of MEDAC. Finalised capital budgets were then sent by MEDAC to MOF for consolidation. This compartmentalisation and associated problems were dispensed with by the Business Processes Re-engineering study that identified MOFED as the sole macroeconomic management planning ministry, with the department of planning in MOFED placed in charge of all planning requirements. 350 The CRM notes, with satisfaction, government efforts towards developing longterm development plans contained in the MDGs Plan (2005/06-2014/15). These efforts, by extension, aim to present Ethiopia’s vision of becoming a middleincome country in 20 years time, as well as the country’s five year development plan (PASDEP) of 2005/05-2009/10. However as mentioned above, the CRM also notes that all these planning processes are spearheaded by the MOFED planning department since no other planning institution currently exists for this purpose. Whilst acknowledging that the ministry possesses the capacity to formulate policies and translate them into action programmes, the CRM is nevertheless concerned that, given the ongoing decentralisation programme that also necessitates fiscal federalism, the processes may be far too large a burden for the MOFED planning department to handle at the desired pace. The CRM notes that regional states formulate development plans that feed into central plans and wonders whether existing capacity in many of the regional - 147 -