Ensour urges all public agencies to vie for excellence award

AMMAN — All ministries and public agencies should participate in the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency to enhance their work, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said on Saturday.

The award is a chance for ministries, independent and public institutions to benefit from the expertise of the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence (KACE), which has been giving out the award since 2002, as well as the Ministry of Public Sector Development, Ensour added.

Therefore, the Prime Ministry will address all concerned bodies on the need to participate in the award, which allows them a two-year preparatory period, the premier said at the 12th Government Leadership Forum, held by the Ministry of Public Sector Development.

The forum aimed at reviewing and evaluating the overall performance of public agencies that took part in the award’s latest cycle, the results of which were announced earlier this year.

Ensour commended the participation of 14 agencies in the award for the first time this year, yet he criticised the participation of only 22 ministries, highlighting the role of participation in elevating provided services and improving resource management.

He said performing the job at the current pace will not be enough, as the public sector has to accelerate its improvement in order to catch up with the emerging developments.

Public Sector Development Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh said the ministry will carry out a series of workshops in all 98 participating entities over the next week to examine how each can transform opportunities into successes through work plans, supported by timeframes.

Khawaldeh added that KACE has provided the ministry with detailed reports on the performance of the participating agencies, and the report will be thoroughly studied by a technical team with members from the ministry, the award, the ICT Ministry, the Civil Service Bureau and the General Budget Department.

He said the team will identify shortcomings and issue recommendations at the institutional level and the overall government level, urging public administration employees to start preparing for the award “immediately” and to consider it a key tool for performance development.  

For her part, KACE Executive Director Yasera Ghosheh said most participating public entities set up strategies, but they rarely implement or review them.

She highlighted the role of the award as an independent tool for performance evaluation and as a reference for quality standards and performance development, as it also award points out improvement opportunities.

Ghosheh said a panel of experts decides on 60 per cent of the evaluation, based on reports and field visits to participating bodies, while the remaining portion of the evaluation includes the satisfaction of customers (10-15 per cent), mystery shoppers (15-20 per cent) and employees (10 per cent), varying according to the nature of the agency.

The average evaluation of the mystery shopper reached 85 per cent, while employee satisfaction reached 70 per cent. Consumer satisfaction was divided into three categories: government to customer (57 per cent approval rates), government to government (73 per cent) and government to business (68 per cent), she said.

Ghosheh attributed the 7 per cent increase in the previous results compared to the results of the last cycle to the efforts of the Ministry of Public Sector Development 

Major strength points include the commitment of the majority of participants to issuing “service cards”, providing services according to their plans and spreading awareness about the services they provide. 

Meanwhile, improvement opportunities are present in strategic planning, risk management and performance indicators, she noted, adding that only 50 per cent of the participating entities have built on evaluation reports of their previous participation in the award.

Ministries that won the 2014/2015 edition of the award include: The Education Ministry in the category of large ministries, and the ministries of ICT and planning and international cooperation in the category of small and medium-sized ministries.

Institutions that participated in previous cycles and won the award again included: the Water Authority of Jordan, the Civil Status and Passport Department, the Development and Employment Fund and the Royal Medical Services. 

As for winning institutions that participated for the first time, they included: the Rangers, the centre of command and control and the highway patrol directorate, which are all affiliated with the Public Security Department.