A body appointed by the British government to provide commercial and financial services, originally to British colonies, now to foreign governments and international bodies. It is responsible to the Minister for Overseas Development and its full title (as re-established in 1979) is the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administrations.
Last November, the Government appointed Crown Agents to reform Bulgaria's customs.
In a joint statement the day after the bombing, the Finance Ministry, the Customs Agency and Crown Agents condemned the attack.
The Crown Agents and consulting engineers claimed that the underestimation and high costs of works were the result of the African landscape, climate and indigenous labour force.
In the case of resident engineers recruitment was undertaken by consulting engineers and the candidates selected were approved by the Crown Agents.
The Colonial Office implicitly trusted the advice and information provided by the Crown Agents and consulting engineers, accepting that ‘when an expert is called in, one is very much in his hands’.
It also eliminated the relatively high cost of salary negotiation and increased the Crown Agents ' control of the building process, as the post-construction payment could theoretically be held back if the line was not up to standard.
While sabotaging the first two, the Crown Agents could do little to impede the success of local construction, which was adopted for all subsequent West African railways.
The Crown Agents rarely sacked consulting engineers who were found to have acted irresponsibly, as dismissal made other firms of high standing reluctant to undertake projects.
This is one of a number of projects carried out by Crown Agents around the world, mainly in developing countries, in the fields of infrastructure advice, financial development and the procurement of aid.
In such cases the Crown Agents occasionally asked the consulting engineers to reduce standards.
Nor are those who seek to throw obstacles in the path of Crown Agents limited to those who do so in public view, if media reports are to be believed.
A further strategy adopted by the Crown Agents and consulting engineers to maximise their incomes was the encouragement of the Colonial Office to authorise lines, which led to the construction of uneconomic railways.
The recommendations put forward by the Crown Agents and consulting engineers were usually excessively optimistic.
The first section identifies why the Crown Agents, the Colonial Office and the consulting engineers adopted the departmental system, and examines the traditional explanations for the inadequacies of the projects.