ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT recommendations on how this could be accomplished. A Programme of Action of the authorities could then follow the recommendations, with regular reporting on progress made. Ministries, departments and agencies 85. In the meantime, and in the immediate future, all the ministries, departments and agencies covered in Ghana's CSAR should conduct their own self-assessment, making use of the information collated during the self-assessment work. Steps can then be taken to remedy deficiencies. This would be especially important for bodies like Customs, Excise and Preventive Services, as well as those in local government and the judiciary which the CSAR has identified as having made the least improvement in transparency. Even agencies that were seen as becoming more transparent, like Parliament, the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, would benefit from a self-assessment of their own, followed by action to accelerate the progress they have been making. These actions should be made public within a year, even before the release of the overall report by the specific persons or organisation assigned the overall task of looking at the transparency problem as a whole. Objective 3: Enhance sound public finance management i. Self-assessment 86. The Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PUFMARP) has been designed as an integrated modern financial management system. According to the CSAR, PUFMARP is widely perceived as having been costly and yet to produce the desired results. A World Bank assessment in mid-2003 has rated the overall project as marginally unsatisfactory. Most respondents have rated progress in the different areas of public finance management identified in the survey as either good or satisfactory. Only 10% consider progress in any specific area as very satisfactory. Progress in budget planning, formulation and comprehensiveness, and the link between planning and budgeting is rated as average. 87. In all key areas of government expenditure control, accounting procedures and reporting, the survey respondents assess progress as marginally satisfactory but insufficient to curtail misuse of public resources, or to stop leakages of funds flowing from the central to local government units. External auditing, payroll management, 71