Dubai Smart Government (DSG) Department won an international award at the United Nations Public Service Awards 2013 in the category “Promoting Whole-of-Government Approaches in the Information Age” for the Western Asia region.
This international recognition of excellence in public service was presented to Dubai Smart Government by Wu Hongbo, Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations (UN).
The award was received by a team from the Communication and Business Development Department at a special ceremony in Bahrain on June 23, the United Nations Public Service Day. Previously, the team made a presentation to the visitors of the exhibition held on the sidelines of the ceremony which focused on the electronic shared services (ESS) and smart phone applications provided by the DSG to government entities in addition to the official portal of the Government of Dubai (dubai.ae), which offers eServices to Dubai government entities in one place.
Ahmad bin Humaidan, Director-General at the Dubai Smart Government, said: “This award is the fruit of our cooperation with our partners of government entities in the eTransformation process since its start in 2000. We were also delighted to note that the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, in his welcome message on the occasion of United Nations Public Service Day, said that the winners of the UN Public Service Award have set an example in improving delivery, promoting accountability and that our innovative approach to public governance was building a better future for all.”
He added: “During our nomination process to the UN, we showed how our electronic shared services were adopted and used across 56 government entities in Dubai to achieve back-office operational efficiencies and significant cost savings for the government. This translates into streamlined and automated customer services that enable us to give satisfaction and win the trust of customers. In addition, we get regular delegations from brotherly Arab countries wishing to benefit from learning how to create centrally managed ESS and redirect cost savings towards other public welfare schemes. These ESS have also helped us reduce our carbon emissions due to a single highly utilised infrastructure for multiple government entities resulting in a smart government that is also environmentally sustainable in line with the criteria taken into account by the UN while recognising the efforts of the winners.”
The UN Public Service Awards 2013 is an international event designed to promote and support innovations in public service delivery worldwide.
