Monitoring & Inspection Services – Government and Institutions

ACE has in its portfolio services rendered to the governments and its institutions that are aimed at verifying compliance with government policies and procedures.

Such Services address the needs for improved governance, accountability and transparency in the implementation of public development programs and projects. Their objective is to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of these activities while complying with the policies and operational procedures of both lenders/donors and borrowers/recipients.

Some of the services include:

• Verify the compliance of procurement and contracting procedures
• Verify the physical completion and price competitiveness of transactions
• Assess the performance of contracts administration and management
• Review the capacity of implementing agencies in handling procurement efficiently
• Identify improvements in the procurement process in the light of deficiencies
• Providing timely and substantiated Primary Checks Reports about the compliance of specific steps in the procurement processes undertaken by Borrowers
• Providing the lending agency with regular analysis of patterns of non-conformities for any given portfolio of projects

Credit Support Risk Assessment

The objective of our Risk Assessment is to comprehensively review the implementing agencies' current processes and operations in terms of system, output, personnel and finance that may affect (positively or negatively) the lenders operations towards an enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

By doing so, we identify actual non-conformities in the borrowing agencies processes and procedures. Recommendations then focus on the necessary institutional capacity building tools for optimising the Value for Money of projects' outputs.

Risk Assessment methodology achieves the following objectives:

• Identify and explain the recurrent strengths and weaknesses of implementing agencies and provide an overall performance rating
• Propose the necessary corrective actions to prevent these risks from occuring in the future
• Suggest pro-active management tools for mitigating these risks

Import / Export Weight Declaration, Inspection and Verification

This service is offered by ACE to Government and its institutions where verification of weight of goods declared for import or export is essential for tax purposes. Different methods of inspection can be applied including scanners where scanners are used to scan sea containers, air containers, road trucks, tourism vehicles and railcars that may dissimulate contraband, smuggling and/or miss-declared cargo but also drugs, explosive or weapons. Experienced scanner operators can quickly ascertain through non-intrusive scanner inspection, concealments. However, ACE Declaration, Inspection and Verification services will cover over-quantities and weight, therefore, increase customs’ collection of duties and taxes.

Customs Support Services

ACE recognize the fact that Governments, in particular national Customs Administrations, are faced with the challenge of maintaining strong controls to protect their national interests, while at the same time facilitating the flow of goods to improve competitiveness.

Services offered to the Government’s customs departments includes:

• Inspection Services for weight and quality
• Validation of Valuation, Classification and Origin

Inspection Services

These are provided across exporting, transhipment or importing locations by means of inspection techniques, risk-focused pre-shipment inspections, state-of-the-art technology expertise, weighing, testing and management of weigh bridge equipment, and "second inspection" on arrival.

Validation of Valuation, Weight, Classification and Origin

ACE offers operational support to reduce revenue losses related to misdeclared weight and origins, thus strengthening institutional capacity.

Timber and Logs

Logs are handled in a number of different ways by various lumber concerns depending upon the nature of their business and the handling facilities that are available. Even though our operations must be flexible enough to tie in with the varied practices of our depositors, there are a few fundamental precautions and risks we should recognize in all log operations.

ACE provide services to address the following issues :

• credibly certified as coming from well managed forests?
• monitored and verified as of legal origin and legally compliant?
• inspected against contract specifications?
• tested against technical norms?

Through a range of independent ‘compliance assessment’ services, ACE provides responsible buyers, conscious governments and other stakeholders in the forest and timber product sector with the assurances they seek to make informed purchasing decisions, to improve forest control, or to just forge documented opinions.