We saved Ghana US$1.5bn in procurement — Crown Agents
Crown Agents, an international development non-profit organisation with special interest in procurement issues, says it has helped the country save about US$1.5 billion through value-for-money assessment of government procurements over the last four years.
Although he declined to mention the specific projects, the Country Director of the organisation, Mr Jourade Quartey, said the monies that were saved in the projects had been subsequently ploughed back into the government’s coffers for the provision of other equally important social services for the people of Ghana.
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Mr Quartey made the comments at the official opening of the organisation’s office in Ghana.
He said his outfit, which served as an advisory body to the government on procurement issues, made sure that all the technical procedures in the projects were followed by the Ghanaian government with regard to procurement laws.
Its role, he stated, ensured taxpayers’ money was put to good use.
He added that his firm’s activities in Ghana spanned over 50 years with the specific objective of “standing along Ghanaians to accelerate self-efficiency and prosperity”.
“We are into many things, but we are mainly noted in Ghana for procurement services; where we come in to act as agents on behalf of a client.
We stand in between the client and whoever the client is procuring for, and we make sure it delivers value,” he said.
Touching on the opening of the office, he indicated that it was intended to give the organisation the space it needed to continue delivering results for its clients and to grow at the same time.
Training of civil servants
The Chief Executive Officer of the organisation, Mr Fergus Drake, also pointed out that it had trained over 500 Ghanaian senior civil servants in the areas of customs reforms and public financial management.
He said it had also got almost 250,000 out-of-school children back into education through the complementary basic education (CBE) programme, and young people could now access the government’s free secondary education provision and be part of building Ghana’s prosperous future.
Through the UKAID-funded Complementary Basic Education (CBE), he revealed that Crown Agents Limited had touched the lives of over 248,000 Ghanaian students, stressing that there was still more work to be done.
“There is over 650,000 Ghanaian children who are still out of school and we are interested in working with the Ministry of Education and the Ghanaian government to do everything we can to increase the success story of the CBE programme,” he stated.