Dubai: The Shaikh Khalifa Government Excellence Programme (SKGEP) held a series of open meetings and seminars dedicated to exploring how best to implement the fourth-generation pillars of the Government Excellence System.
The meetings also covered the new registration process for the Mohammad Bin Rashid Government Excellence Award (MBRGEA).
The meetings revealed new procedures for the awarding of medals for most distinguished staff members in the federal government, handed out by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Attended by nearly 300 undersecretaries, directors-general, and Ambassadors of Excellence from various government departments, the meetings are part of the ongoing registration campaign for the award and the medals, which runs until late September, and in preparation for the upcoming evaluation process, set to kick off in October.
Mariam Al Hammadi, assistant director-general for Government Performance and Excellence in the Prime Minister’s Office, underlined the major role that these meetings play in helping authorities achieve their goals by implementing the fourth-generation Government Excellence System. The system aims to use original methods and standards to improve government services.
Al Hammadi confirmed that SKGEP works in tandem with federal and local governments in a bid to ensure the widespread implementation of the principles of excellence, as well as to raise awareness regarding the general themes of the Government Excellence System and the evaluation criteria for MBRGEA. This serves to boost performance in the government sector and to instil a happy, innovation-friendly environment, one of the key objectives of the UAE Government.
The meetings, Al Hammadi said, serve to support federal authorities as they work to implement the Government Excellence System, and to clarify any queries or concerns regarding the themes of the system, the evaluation criteria, and the new categories covered by the Mohammad Bin Rashid Government Excellence Award.
In an effort to extend full support to government departments as they implement the Government Excellence System, SKGEP personnel also met undersecretaries and directors-general from the federal government and once again explained the system’s key focus areas, as well as the new registration process for the 2016 edition of MBRGEA and how to use the award’s electronic gateway for the high-ranking government officials category.
In addition, the SKGEP discussed the latest developments in the registration process for MBRGEA and explained the evaluation process for entries competing for the Prime Minister’s Medal for Best Undersecretary/Director-General, in particular, seeing as this was one of the most important new categories in the fourth instalment of the competition.
The Prime Minister’s Medal for Best Undersecretary/Director-General is evaluated on two main criteria: performance and achievement, and leadership skills, each of which comprises sub-criteria to make the evaluation more accurate, including the achievements of the government body where they work, evaluating that achievement as well as the personal performance of the undersecretary or director-general in question, evaluation by the candidate’s peers of his/her leadership skills, as well as the skill-evaluation centre’s result.
The team answered inquiries by senior government officials about the standards and assessment tools associated with the Government Excellence System, and relayed basic observations about the nominations that have been submitted so far through the electronic gateway of the MBRGEA.
Adding to the outputs of the first open meeting held for the Ambassadors of Excellence back in June, the programme held another meeting, this time focusing on the main updates to the MBRGEA scheme and the application process. In addition, the team answered questions from participants regarding the award, the categories and methods of applying.
