Tuesday 06 / May / 2025
Muscat: The Ministry of Labour honoured distinguished entities for their institutional excellence in 2024 during a ceremony held on Tuesday evening, recognising their efforts in enhancing operational efficiency and advancing the ministry’s goals of fostering a culture of continuous development and improving competitive benchmarks.
The event was held under the auspices of Dr. Mahad Said Ba’Owain, Minister of Labour.
Sayyid Salim Musallam Al Busaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour for Human Resources Development, emphasised that the initiative aims to institutionalise best practices for improving work environments, streamlining procedures, and driving teams toward tangible outcomes that benefit both employees and service recipients. He noted that the awards prioritise innovative thinking over routine procedures and reward mature institutional behavior rather than temporary achievements.
The Ejada (Excellence) system has encouraged government units to adopt practical mechanisms, programs, and methodologies that promote innovation and improve service quality for individuals and society. It has also strengthened institutional performance culture and fostered healthy competition among units.
The system evaluated 61 government administrative units starting from 1 January 2023, analyzsng over 14 million data points, including fixed indicators, employee feedback on administrative practices, job satisfaction surveys, and insights from 170,000 beneficiaries across 700 government service centers in 2023.
Government units were assessed based on their annual performance progress across seven key criteria: leadership and strategic planning, human capital and institutional culture, partnerships and operations, customer satisfaction, innovation, governance, and environmental and social responsibility—each measured by five performance indicators.
Seventeen high-performing government units were honored, with selection considering institutional size—noting an inverse relationship between size and ease of performance improvement.
The following awards were also given:
• Continuous Improvement Prize: the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ), Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).
• Human Capital Prize: Secretariat General of the Tender Board, Central Bank of Oman (CBO), and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
• Innovation Support Prize: Authority for Public Services Regulation.
• Sustainable Growth Prize: Oman Vision 2040 Implementation Follow-up Unit, Oman Investment Authority (OIA), and South Al Sharqiyah Governorate.
• Partnership & Cooperation Prize: Ministry of Finance.
• Customer Satisfaction Prize: The National Records and Archives Authority (NRAA), Social Protection Fund, and Civil Aviation Authority.
• Best Team in Implementing Ejada: Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Oman Medical Specialty Board and Ministry of Education.
• Best Support & Response Team: Al Dakhiliyah Governorate, Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning.
• Best Individual Performance Measurement Team: Ministry of Health, Environment Authority (EA), and University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS).
The ceremony also honoured private sector leaders in employment and Omanisation, including:
• Oman Security and Safety Services, Petroleum Development Oman, Gulfar Engineering & Contracting, Al Tawoos Industrial Services, Gulf Petrochemical Services & Trading, Al Tasnim Projects, LT Industrial Installation Complex, Oman National Engineering & Investment Co., Arabian Industries Projects Co., Nesto Hypermarket, OQ, National Bank of Oman, Rihal Data & Electronic Services, and National Drilling & Services Co.
Key achievements of Ejada system include: 45% of supervisory roles in the public sector are now under qualification programmes; 64% of employees (111,475) benefited from competency development opportunities; Employee resignation rates indicator improved by 72%, while sector partnerships surged 233% (totaling 2,579 agreements); SME funding increased by 111% (OMR152.5 million), and 4,863 workflow procedures were optimised; Innovation-support initiatives rose by 184%, with funding up 153% (OMR45.1 million); 94% of complaints were resolved on time, with a 38% drop in grievances against government units; Environmental and community programmes grew by 247% and 642%, respectively; Public engagement in decision-making rose by 15%, and media outreach on government plans increased by 76%.
The Ejada system has significantly elevated institutional performance, service quality, and stakeholder trust across Oman’s public and private sectors.
