[3] Prior to 1997, Crown Agents was a UK public statutory corporation, overseen by the British Ministry of Overseas Development.
[4] Crown Agents' responsibilities on behalf of colonial governments included accounting for Treasury grants, purchasing supplies, recruiting certain staff and raising capital on the markets.
[4] As decolonisation accelerated, the office was renamed Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations in 1954, and the rules were changed to allow it to take on projects for independent states (Iraq being the first example).
[6] The financial collapse of the Crown Agents, which necessitated a bail-out by the Government, was one of the most high-profile failures of the 1974 property and secondary banking crisis, and widely considered a scandal.
It was a body without effective supervision in which inexperienced officers engaged in a wide range of speculative banking and property developments on a worldwide basis.
“It is manifest from the minutes of the committee that during the period from 1967 to 1974 the conduct of the affairs of the Crown Agents and, in particular, the actions of certain of its staff, lacked competence and good judgement.” [7] The parliamentary debate on the Fay report in turn led to the establishment in March 1978 of a Tribunal "to inquire to what extent there were lapses from accepted standards of commercial or professional conduct or of public administration in relation to the operations of the Crown Agents as financiers on own account in the years 1967–1974.
In a formal statement to the House of Commons, the Prime Minister reported that “the tribunal has identified a number of serious shortcomings that existed at that time, not only in relation to the conduct of individuals, in respect of some of whom lapses or criticisms falling short of lapses were formally specified, but also in relation to the operation of institutions and procedures.”[12] The best-known of the Crown Agents’ investments was with the William Stern group; Stern himself became Britain's largest ever bankrupt to date and the losses of the Crown Agents were reported to be £54m.
[13] Less well-known but also a substantial problem were the Australian property investments held under the umbrella of English and Continental Group, where losses were estimated as a possible £35m.
[16] The appointment of John Cuckney in October 1974 was the first step in rescuing the Crown Agents and restoring confidence in its traditional functions.
[20] Crown Agents was placed into insolvency on the 1 August 2024, largely due to cuts in funding from the UK Government and cost reduction efforts in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Crown Agents leads Ascend Lot 1 and works with a consortium of technical partners, including Abt Associates, Oriole Global Health and the Royal Tropical Institute.
[30] In Sierra Leone, Crown Agents is delivering the Saving Lives Programme as part of a public health consortium.
Phase 1 of the programme has been delivered and focused on increasing access to preventive services, including family planning, water, sanitation and long lasting insecticide treated bednets.
With the country having some of the highest rates of child mortality in the world, CHAMPS’ goal is to produce the data needed to inform evidence-based policies that can prevent deaths of under 5-year olds.
To achieve this, the programme seeks to identify definitive causes of death of children under 5 using digital data collection tools and Minimally Invasive Tissue Samples (MITS).
Whereas before, two or three suppliers dominated supply, Crown Agents have brought in almost 30, thus defeating the tricks previously used to corner the market.”[34] In Libya, Crown Agents implements the three-year programme Tazeez, financed by the UK Government's (FCDO's) Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and supported by the Government of Libya.
[38] Furthermore, the company has provided governmental services as large as reforming the customs system of Angola,[39] and transforming the central medical stores in Zambia.