Ahmed Mahboob: Dubai Customs is the first electronic department and the first smart department, in line with Dubai m-Government vision
Jumaa Al Ghaith: DC adopted a comprehensive strategy for the development of technological enterprises on par with latest criteria
Ahmed Kazim: Earning these excellence awards incites us to be geared towards success
Dubai Customs has won the 17th edition DGEP award for the electronically distinguished government entity, for the year 2013-2014. The prestigious award came in recognition of DC’s successful IT initiatives to adopt the Customs Development Excellence Model, based on international industry best practices. Through this model, DC has been able to achieve its goals in trade facilitation, security enforcement, compliance conformance and trade supply chain integration. This led to the enhancement of UAE’s reputation and improved its ranking in Global Competitiveness.
As Dubai Customs was the first fully electronic government department in Dubai in 2009, it has also become the first entirely smart government department in 2013, in pursuance of the integrated vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and in fulfilment of the goals set by His Highness for the smart government. DC delivers non-stop services to customers via their mobile phones, regardless of time and place. These smart services are consistent with the Dubai Model for Government Service Delivery and in line with the service standards of Dubai Smart Government.
An integrated system for fast completion of transactions
H.E. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Dubai Customs Director, expressed his joy for DC’s winning of the electronically distinguished government entity among 6 awards presented to DC in the announcement ceremony of the 17th edition of DGEP awards.
He elaborated that DC’s technical achievements include 100% automation of external services and 97% of internal services, in addition to saving AED 167 million due to various IT initiatives and AED 9 million in IT operational cost. Moreover, technical initiatives in DC resulted in seizures valued more than AED 450 million in terms of economy and society protection.
DC generated a revenue of AED 75 million in the past three years, due to the implementation of the post clearance audit system, and the time needed to complete duties payment processes was reduced by 95% thanks to the application of the virtual account system, enabling customers to increase their returns as a result of the reduction of time needed to complete their transactions.
World-class technical projects
Juma Al Ghaith, Executive Director of Customs Development Division, said that Dubai Customs adopted a comprehensive strategy for the development of technological enterprises on par with the internationally accredited COBIT 5 criteria and work processes and based on best practices in IT management which comprise "ISO20000” and " ISO27001", as well as best practices in IT systems development and project management, including"CMMI and "PMBOK”. The strategy followed a methodology that adheres to the DGEP criteria for the electronically distinguished government entity, allowing DC to be the first government department in the GCC region to be evaluated by COBIT 5, the latest edition from the Information Security Management Audit/Assurance Program (ISACA).
He stressed that Dubai Customs received many prestigious awards and certificates of appreciation in the technical field. As released by the WCO, “DC’s practices conform to world-class IT standards.”
Dubai Customs website scored 91% in the quality evaluation results of Dubai Government Entities’ Websites for 2013, according to the guidelines of Dubai Government Websites Excellence Model. It also won the CIO 50 award for the past 4 years, the Network Security Project of the Year 2013 and the World Enterprise Architecture Award.
Ahmad Kazim: We hold to these prizes with pride
Ahmad Kazim the Manager of the Strategy and Corporate Excellence Department, expressed his happiness for the department’s winning of 6 awards as a part of the DGEP awards, stressing on the department’s keenness on providing an innovative and excellence encouraging environment for the employees’ ,which would consecutively be reflected in creating a better interest for themselves, the Government and the Country as a whole; in line with H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai vision of excellence and creativity for the country and for the UAE citizens.
He also stated that this scored achievement by the DC has not been attained without the team work spirit amongst both the employees and the DC leaders, adhering to the highest work standards at all levels, assuring for a fact that the reception of this award as an incentive for pursuing the same level of dedication and exerting even further efforts to achieve excellence at all levels, noting that DC was the second best e-department for Dubai’s program of Government Excellence
An exceptional role for a the Strategic Management
Ahmad Kazim also stated that the Strategy and Corporate Excellence Department followed a clear methodology for nominating the excelling government department in the e-field, starting early in 2012 immediately after the announcement of the previous course results in this category, a gap analysis including all the listed observation within the previous evaluation report in addition to analysing the current status of DC with regard to the e-excellence government department were conducted. Post to the analysis of the global best practices the working team supervising this category devised a comprehensive work plan that includes all the activities and programs to be executed within two years in collaboration with the DC Projects Management Division, a series of periodical and regular meetings had been set bringing together the working team of the e-entity and the Strategy and Corporate Excellence Department, then forwarding the accomplishment reports to the DC leaderships.
The Strategy and Corporate Excellence Department directly contributed with the working team of the e-excellence Government Department in preparing the nomination file for this category and undertook regular evaluations seeking to ensure the attainment of the desired outcomes.