The initiative was launched at the end of 2023 to eliminate and reduce bureaucracy
The UAE’s Vice President on Sunday announced the results of the bureaucracy removal initiative, ranking the best and worst government departments across the country.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, listed these organisations on the basis of their performance during the last year, which came after the launch of the bureaucracy elimination and reduction movement at the end of 2023.
“We launched an evaluation to assess the responsiveness of these entities, ensuring better services, higher efficiency, and an easier life for people,” said the Dubai Ruler in a social media post.
Listing out the best departments, the Ruler ranked the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the Department of Energy and Infrastructure as the top three, stating they had “excelled in their efforts to combat bureaucracy”.
Sheikh Mohammed thanked these entities, hailing them as the “top performers”.
Meanwhile, the Emirates Post, the Pensions Authority, and Ministry of Sports were ranked as the worst three entities in cutting down bureaucracy.
The leader offered advice to these entities by saying: “And to those who have not put in enough effort… the bad systems created by government bureaucracy over the years can be changed with bold and swift decisions in just a few days. This also applies to the individuals and officials involved.”
Highlighting the essence of the initiative and placing importance on “thinking out of the box”, the Ruler shared how government bureaucracy is the art of turning simple things into complex ones and is the “art of creating administrative systems to combat individual creativity.”
“In government bureaucracy, procedures are more important than outcomes… paperwork is more important than delivering services… and systems and rules are put in place to limit thinking outside the box.”
This is not the first time the leader has publicly announced performance reviews of government entities and called out those with poor performance.
In 2020, the country launched the ‘UAE Mystery Shopper’ app, which is a method commonly used to gather information and measure the quality of services offered. Prior to this, the Dubai Ruler had referred to his own personal team of mystery shoppers who would be sent to evaluate government services.
At the end of 2024, the leader called out three managers who were found to have blocked public access to their government offices — which is in violation of the emirate’s culture of “open doors for the people”.
Back in 2023, Sheikh Mohammed reviewed the results of UAE’s customer satisfaction rating tool and revealed the best and worst government services in the country. The same year, the director of a hospital in the UAE had been replaced after the healthcare facility featured at the bottom of the list of worst service centres.
In 2021, the leader announced the best and worst government service centres in the country.
In 2019, the leader listed out the top five and worst service centres across the country, where Fujairah’s Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship centre was named as the best performing entity, while Emirates Post’s Al Khan Branch in Sharjah was named the worst performing centre.
Source: Khaleejtimes
