King Abdullah II Center for Excellence Announces

the Awards' New Cycle Launch

Amman-  21/2/2010

The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence (KACE) launched today the new cycle of the King Abdullah II Awards for Excellence for the public sector, private sector and business associations sector. KACE will start soon the first stage, which includes conducting the awareness sessions for the ministries and public institutions participating in the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency and the organizations who are willing to participate in King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for the Private Sector and King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for Business Associations

King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency:

The number of participants in the fifth cycle (2010/2011) of the Award is (22) ministries, (5) of them are participating for the first time, and (59) public institutions, (12) of them are participating for the first time.

 The Awards categories are the best ministry, the best public institution / department, the best accomplishment, the best ministry / organization participating for the first time, the best public institution / department participating for the first time, the distinguished government employee.

 The final score for each ministry / institution depends on four integrated components, which are:

1)      60% for the Assessment Process (Participation report including criteria answers and site visit assessment)

2)      15% for the Mystery Shopper: The Center contracts an independent specialized company to conduct the mystery shopper study and assess the services provided by the ministry / institution by acting as a citizen, investor or organization seeking service. The mystery shopper conducts several visits to each ministry / institution and fills out a questionnaire built on best practices, highlighting the level of services offered. The findings are interpreted into scores for each ministry / institution.

3)      15% for the Customer Satisfaction Study: The Center contracts an independent specialized company to conduct the customer satisfaction study (citizen, investor, or entity). In this study the customer is approached to give his/her opinion about the services offered by the ministry / institution, through/using a questionnaire based on international best practices, the findings are interpreted into scores for each ministry / institution.

4)      10% for the Employee Satisfaction Study: The Center measures the ministries and public institutions' employees' satisfaction regarding their involvement and interaction in their ministries/institutions. This study is conducted by asking the employees to fill a questionnaire built on based on international best practices. The findings are interpreted into scores for each ministry / institution. 

Then KACE forms a specialized committee to discuss with the Steering Committee of the Board of Trustees of KACE, the final reports resulting from each of the evaluation process, the mystery shopper, the customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction, for the ministries and public institutions which compete to win the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency. Then the Steering Committee recommends to the Board of Trustees the winners of the Award, after that the Board decides on the winners.

 In the previous cycle the Center applied a new mechanizm to identify the winners of the Award, three stages were created; the gold, silver and bronze stages, and winners in each stage are decided based on their marks. Ministries and institutions, who compete and do not receive the Award, receive a certificate of recognition of being in the golden, silver or bronze stage. The reason behind the creation of this mechanism is to stimulate the ministries and institutions to continuously improve and develop their performance and proceed in its journey towards excellence.

 The winning ministry or institution receives a trophy and a certificate of appreciation, which is a catalyst and a high moral honor of the ministry or the institution, and the Award is delivered at a grand ceremony, and for the employee winning the Distinguished Government Employee Award, receives a trophy and a financial reward and a certificate of thanks and appreciation.

After announcing the results, each organization participating in the Award receives an assessment report based on the Award’s criteria clarifying its strengths and areas for improvement, to help it achieve continuous improvement on its performance.

 The winners of the previous cycle are: the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation ranked at top of honors in the “Ministries Participating more than Once”, while The Ministry of Education came second, in the “Ministries Participating for the First Time”, the Ministry of Finance won the Award, in the category of "Public Institutions Participating More Than Once", the Development and Employment Fund was ranked first, while second place was shared by the Jordan Securities Commission and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA).

 In the category of "Public Institutions Participating for the First Time" the Investment Unit at the Social Security Corporation ranked first.

The “Best Accomplishment” Award given to institutions that showed a qualitative leap in their performance was granted to the Jordan News Agency "Petra", the Jordan Food and Drug Administration and the Civil Defense Department respectively.

 The Award aims to enhance the quality and development in the performance of the ministries and public institutions' service of Jordanian citizens and the customers, investors and promote positive competitiveness among them, through the dissemination of awareness of the concepts performance and innovation, quality and transparency, as the main objective of the Award in the government sector to ensure that the duties and functions are presented in high levels of quality, efficiency and professionalism.

The participation in the Award is mandatory for all ministries and public institutions and this is applied gradually as mentioned in the Royal Decree of establishing the Award.

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The King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for Private Sector

The Award is based on nine criteria; Leadership, Strategy, People, Partnerships and Resources, Processes, Products and Services, Customer Results, People Results, Society Results, Key Results.

The Awards has six categories; large manufacturing organizations or their sub-units, large service organizations or their sub-units, small and medium size manufacturing organizations, small and medium size service organizations, agriculture and agricultural marketing organizations, winning organizations for two cycles or more. 

The organizations wishing to participate in the Award apply to determine its eligibility, It must fulfill some requirements; registered non-governmental Jordanian legal entity, sustained activities over at least the two previous years (with evidence), sustained good financial performance. 

Eligible organizations prepare the participation report; including supporting documents, and submit it to the Center according to the deadline.

 Participating organizations may ask the Center not to announce their names as part of the participants in the Award if they do not achieve the Award. 

The winning organizations receive the trophy of the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for Private Sector and a certificate of appreciation, which is considered an incentive for the winning organization for being the excellent and most efficient organization in its sector. The results are announced during a big ceremony held under the Royal Patronage. 

After announcing the results, each organization participating in the Award receives an assessment report based on the Award’s criteria clarifying its strengths and areas for improvement, to help it achieve continuous improvement on its performance.

The winning organization receives differential treatment from the Jordan Institution of Standards and Metrology, Jordan Customs Department, Jordan Enterprise (JEDCO) and Government Tenders Directorate.

 The winners in the previous cycle are: 

The Jordan Ice and Aerated Water Company (Pepsi) came first in the subcategory of large manufacturing organizations. In the subcategory of large service organizations, the Specialty Hospital won first place, while Jordan Light Vehicle Manufacturing won the Award in the subcategory of small or medium size manufacturing organizations. The Arab Center for Engineering Studies won the Award in the subcategory small or medium size service organizations and Consulting Engineers Centre "Sajdi and Partners" won the Award in the subcategory of winners participating in more than one cycle of the Award.

 The King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for the private sector was established in 1999 to enhance the competitiveness of Jordanian businesses by promoting quality awareness and performance excellence, as well as recognizing quality and business achievements of Jordanian organizations.  The Award also aims at sharing the experiences and success stories of participating organizations.

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 King Abdullah II Award for Excellence for Business Associations

 

The Center launched the second phase of the Award, "Seal of Excellence" where the business associations that received the Mark of "Best Practice" twice in the previous cycles can compete to achieve the "Seal of Excellence", while participation in the first phase, Mark of "Best Practices" is available for associations that did not participate previously or achieved the Mark once.

 Achievers of Mark of "Best Practice" for Business Associations for the previous Cycle, are:

Jordan Forum for Business & Professional Women, Private Hospitals Associations,

The Jordanian Association of Manufacturers of Pharmaceuticals & Medical Appliances, and Jordan Exporters & Producers Association for Fruits & Vegetables.

 The Award was established to serve as a means of setting standards for business associations based on international best practices. The Award provides a strong incentive for business associations to continually improve to serve their members, as well as the public and private sectors. 

The Award consists of three stages: The first stage is the Mark of “Best Practice”, the second is the “Seal of Excellence” and the last stage, which is the highest level of recognition for business associations in Jordan, is the “King Abdullah II Award for Excellence”. 

KACE was founded in January 2006, supervised under HRH Prince Feisal Bin Al-Hussein as the Chairman of KACE Board of Trustees. KACE manages the ‘King Abdullah II Award for Excellence’, which is considered the most prestigious Award for excellence on the national level and in all sectors. KACE is considered the national reference for quality and excellence in all sectors. It's role to promote the culture of excellence in order to increase Jordan’s international competitiveness with the ultimate goal of ensuring a prosperous future for Jordan.

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