King Abdullah II Awards for Excellence launched on 27/1/2008 

28 January 2008

AMMAN - The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence on Sunday launched its 2008 awards to promote excellence in performance and management in all public and private sector institutions and business associations.

The center's awards include the King Abdullah Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency, the King Abdullah Award for Distinction in the Private Sector and the King Abdullah Award for Distinction in Business Associations.

The centre will soon start work on the first stage of the competition process which includes holding workshops for participating ministries and institutions to raise their awareness on the requirements and stages, the center's executive director Yasera Ghosheh told reporters yesterday.

A total of 65 institutions are competing for this year’s King Abdullah Award for Distinction in Government Performance, including 17 ministries, six of which are participating for the first time, and another 48 public institutions, seven of them of competing for the first time.

The award is split into several categories: Best ministry, best public institution/department/authority, best first-time participating ministry, best first-time participating public institution, best achievement and distinctive government employee.

The winning institution will have gone through four integrated evaluations which represent 60 per cent of the final score, and answered questions regarding its work process and standards.

The remaining 40 per cent is determined by an undercover customer evaluation (15 per cent), a measure of customer satisfaction with the quality of the services (15 per cent) and employees’ satisfaction of workplace conditions (10 per cent).

The centre then assembles a specialized committee to discuss the results, following which its guidance committee nominates prospective award winners to the board of trustees, which makes a final decision on the winning institutions and ministries.

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“This award seeks to achieve a qualitative leap in the performance of ministries and public institutions and enhance positive competitiveness among them,” Ghosheh told reporters during yesterday’s press conference.

The award also seeks to ensure that the public sector is shouldering its responsibilities, she said, adding that this is achieved through raising awareness on the concepts of distinctive performance, creativity, high quality and transparency.

Referring to the King Abdullah Award for Excellence in the Private Sector, Ghosheh said it seeks to encourage private companies to compete both locally and internationally.

Institutions wishing to take part in the competition submit applications to the centre, which determines whether the company meets the award conditions.

“The winning private company receives several privileges, including favorable treatment from the Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology, the Jordan Customs Department, the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation as well as the Public Tenders Department,” she added.

Meanwhile, the King Abdullah Award for Business Association Performance, referred to as the “Mark of Best Practice Award”, seeks to set standards for business associations based on internationally recognised best practice.

It is designed to enhance the effectiveness and corporate excellence of participating business associations and chambers, according to its website: www.associationsaward-jo.com.

Ghosheh said this year’s awards are different as the centre has added new criteria to evaluate participating institutions which target gender, equity, social responsibility and achievement of Royal initiatives.

She added that the centre is currently developing a mechanism in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Sector Reform to follow up on the wining institutions and ministries to ensure constant improvement in their performance.

Ghosheh said the centre implements best international practices in managing the King Abdullah II Excellence Awards, noting that it is the recent recipient of the Committed to Excellence certificate from the European Foundation for Quality Management.

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