King honours winners of excellence awards

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday attended a ceremony to announce the winners of the 2014/2015 edition of the King Abdullah II Awards for Excellence in the public and private sectors, including business associations and non-profit organisations.

King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence (KACE), which was established 10 years ago, organised the ceremony at Al Hussein Youth City’s Cultural Palace, a Royal Court statement said.

Before the ceremony, His Majesty toured an exhibition that showcases memorials for each award and was briefed by KACE Executive Director Yasera Ghosheh on the development of the award, its categories and the number of institutions taking part in the competitions since the establishment of the centre.

During the event, attended by HRH Prince Feisal, who chairs KACE’s board of trustees, the King presented the awards to winning ministries, institutions and individuals, which include the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for the Private Sector and King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency.

Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh, vice chairperson of the board of trustees of KACE, said the centre started offering only one award but has expanded the scope of recognition to currently administer eight awards.

He said that public institutions that cannot participate because of the nature of their work are helped by the centre to carry out a “self-evaluation”. 

However, Tarawneh said that improvement is still not satisfactory in general “because some government agencies participate in the awards just for the sake of winning, rather than achieving actual improvements and development, which is the very reason behind creating the awards”. 

Although Jordan is facing many challenges ensuing from the terrorism threat, refugee burden and the harsh financial conditions, all that does not justify failure in providing the best services to the public, Tarawneh said. 

During the current cycle, it took 73 days to evaluate and select winners, a process that involved 188 assessors and 15 judges.

Moreover, 115 ministry and public institution took part in this year’s edition, while 215 candidates ran for the Distinguished Government Employee Award.

Ministries that won the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency include: The Education Ministry in the category of large ministries, the ICT Ministry and the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry in the category of small and medium-sized ministries.

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

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

The ceremony was also attended by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and senior officers and officials. 

Founded in January 2006, KACE seeks to promote the culture of excellence in public and private sector entities to increase Jordan’s international competitiveness.