The awards ceremony was attended by a number of sheikhs, senior government officials, representatives from the public and private sectors and large number of employees.

The Sheikh Saqr Programme for Government Excellence (SSPGE), established in 2004, honours distinguished employees from local government and related sectors through its annual excellence awards.

In his keynote address, Sheikh Saud said that the Sheikh Saqr Excellence Programme aims to build organisational capabilities in the RAK government sector and to promote excellence, quality and innovation in local government institutions in line with the vision of  H.H. Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah,

“The current global financial crisis highlights the need for government’s to be more efficient and effective in implementation of projects and delivery of services. The SSPGE is a step towards improving institutional performance and capacity building that would result in enhancing performance standards in the public sector,” he added.

Dr. Mohammed Abdul Latif, Director of the Sheikh Saqr Programme for Government Excellence, said that nominations from 14 government departments were evaluated this year for selecting the winners under 7 categories.

“SSPGE, through its annual awards and other programmes, have been able to instill a culture of excellence in government functioning in RAK. Studies by independent evaluators this year have revealed that there has been a marked increase in performance of RAK Government departments on the basis of parameters like productivity, customer satisfaction and in implementation of quality initiatives,” he said.

The Ras Al Khaimah Economic Development Department was presented with the award for Best Government Department at the function.

The other award categories included Best Organizational Unit, Excellence in implementing the EFQM model, Best Quality Unit, and Employee Excellence Awards for Best Director General, Best Executive Administrative Employee, Best Professional Employee and Best Technical Employee.

Dr. Mohammed Abdul Lathif said that a new system `Outcome based Governance’ would be introduced in RAK this year to assess the performance of government departments.  “Government departments will be assessed based on certain agreed outcome parameters. The departments will be held accountable for their performance and their results will be the key in the assessment process,” he added.

He added that SSPGE is providing full scholarships for 45 outstanding national students this year for undertaking Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in foreign universities as part of capacity building measures.

Dr. Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, Director General of the RAK Economic Development Department, who received the award for the Best Government Department as well as Best Director General Award, said that the honour was the result of teamwork and professionalism adopted by the employees of the department. “We had formulated a clear strategy to increase productivity and to achieve that we overhauled the organizational hierarchy, made appointments to several key posts, and took steps to increase employee efficiency,” he added.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of RAK Customs and Ports Department, Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Kayed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Ittihad University, other sheikhs and dignitaries attended the function.