The Abu Dhabi General Secretariat of the Executive Council has announced the list of candidates who have qualified for the field visit and interview phase, Chairman of the Executive Council Medal category, in the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Award for Excellence in Government Performance, 2017.

The list includes 110 employees from 36 government bodies competing for 11 Chairman of the Executive Council medals. This follows completion of the first phase which evaluated 533 initial applications.

Dr. Fahad Matar Al Neyadi, Director-General of the General Secretariat of the Executive Council, emphasised the high quality of applicants who have qualified in the current edition of the award, saying that it has become a competitive platform for the elite of Abu Dhabi Government employees, strengthening efforts towards building excellent future human capacities and leaderships.

"Since its launch 10 years ago, the Abu Dhabi Award for Excellence in Government Performance has received unlimited support from the wise leadership, who recognise the importance of institutional excellence as a tool to entrench the concepts of excellence among entities and employees, support and improve the government work system and emphasise the need to involve human capital in all the practices that ensure the continuous improvement of institutions" he said.

He added that the individual awards have a great impact on enhancing the concepts of creativity and innovation among employees, contributing to the development of mechanisms and strategies that boosts customer happiness, which in turn will lead to the continuous development of departments.

The Director-General stressed the importance of the next phase, which will determine the features of the finalists, who will be honoured and awarded medals during the closing ceremony to be held in December.

The phase of field visits and interviews will continue until the end of October, while the evaluation of the 42 general managers competing within the Chairman of the Executive Council Medal category for the Best General Manager Medal will run in parallel with the evaluation of government entities.

The Excellence System was adopted as a foundation for assessing participating government entities as they determine the level of maturity these entities have reached in their journey toward leadership in their main tasks and services.

The Abu Dhabi Excellence Programme will provide all participants with feedback reports highlighting their most important performance points and areas of improvement to work on them to enhance the journey of excellence.