Prince Faisal bin Salman. (SPA)

The awards for the best performing government departments, the brainchild of Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman, will be handed out at Taibah University on May 19.

Prince Faisal launched the awards to improve services in the city’s administration, said Wohaib Al-Sahli, assistant undersecretary for developmental affairs in the governorate.

Speaking at a press conference in the city on Tuesday, Al-Sahli said that after the awards last year, there was considerable competition among government departments to improve their performance. This is the second year the awards are taking place.

Al-Sahli said six government departments have qualified for the final stage of evaluation. Field teams are conducting surprise visits to these departments to ensure an accurate assessment of their performance.

He said Prince Faisal has announced several changes to this year’s awards including making it an annual event, and awarding a prize to the department that had shown the best monitoring of developmental projects.

This prize for oversight would help ensure projects are completed on time. Each project would be tracked electronically, providing an opportunity for all parties to take action if there are any obstacles, said Al-Sahli.

He said the second edition of the prize is focusing on quality and continuous improvement. The advisory team of the awards began its work by conducting a thorough investigation of all contestants, measuring their transparency and running a public opinion survey.

He said that last year 104 departments took part, with 11 having quality certificates. This year, 165 departments are participating with 30 having quality certificates.

Al-Sahli said that this year the organizers would also state the reasons for awarding prizes, and name those who ranked in the top 10. The top three winners would be given advanced training in Germany. He said the medals, shields and cups were manufactured in Madinah.

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