Sheikh Saud opens conference on 'Best Practices in Government Sector'

Delivering the opening address, Sheikh Saud said that it is imperative that government departments should inculcate a culture of quality and excellence in their every- day operations to provide enhanced quality of services to the people.

"Each department should strive to set new benchmarks and achieve excellence in the kind of services that they are providing to the people. This will not be possible without engaging and implementing the best practices being followed in the sector," he added.

Sheikh Saud called upon various government departments to benefit from the raft of innovations happening around the world to improve productivity and enhance effectiveness and added," Whatever be the programmes and strategies that we implement, the final outcome would depend on the results that we are able to achieve on the ground".

The SSPGE has been implemented as part of the development strategy of H.H. Sheikh Saud for revitalizing the public sector of the emirate by creating a competitive environment wherein the government sector can improve efficiency and contribute towards the development of society in a bigger way.

The strategy aims to strengthen partnerships between local institutions and federal government institutions and to achieve greater decentralization of work and enhancing the use of modern techniques and supporting e-government initiatives to improve the performance of government departments.

Dr. Mohammed Abdul Latif, Director of the Sheikh Saqr Programme for Government Excellence, said that the conference would highlight the considerable efforts and improvements achieved by RAK Government in its pursuit towards fostering excellence in the government sector.

"It would also provide an opportunity for the government departments to exchange ideas and experiences on implementing best international practices in the government sector", he added.
Making a presentation on the progress achieved by SSPGE, Dr. Robin Mann, Head of the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER) at Massey University, New Zealand, said ," What have been achieved in Ras Al Khaimah during the last one- and- a- half years is truly remarkable in terms of laying the framework for enhancing the performance of government departments. All government departments have gone through a self- assessment process, identified their strengths and areas of improvement and have formulated action plans for implementation".

He said that the SSPGE has been able to achieve substantial improvements among government departments in the critical areas of Leadership, Policy and Strategy, People, Processes and Partnerships and Resources. "We can now see that the leadership in government departments are empowering their staff more and on the policy front, the departments have been able to achieve a clear and focused vision. The employees have developed a general awareness about business excellence and there has been increased communication within and between departments along with a understanding about the need to have a clear documentation process," he added.

He said that SSPGE has identified as many as 270 actions for implementation in RAK government departments in 2007.

The two- day conference brings together a number of international experts who will present papers on quality, government sector development and other related topics.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Kayed Al Qasimi, Vice Chairman of RAK Economic Development Department, and a number of officials attended the conference.