191013 His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum protocol picture
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Image Credit: WAM

Dubai: The UAE government announced on Saturday the country’s best government entities with Fujairah Traffic and Licensing Department and Federal Authority For Identity and Citizenship (ICA) Al Barsha branch in Dubai securing top rankings with six-star ratings.

This is the first time that any of the service delivery centres in the federal government has been given a six-star rating, which sets a precedence since the Global Star Rating System was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in 2012.

Sheikh Mohammed said that the UAE has presented to the world an exceptional model in developing and leading future government work to become a role model to be followed in sustainable development and modernisation. Sheikh Mohammed tweeted on Saturday: “Today, we approved the results of the Star Rating System for 69 government service centres, 14 of them have achieved an increase in their classification; Fujairah Traffic and Licensing Service Centre, the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) Al Barsha branch in Dubai, received the highest rating, i.e, 6-star rating. Congratulations to the 6-star rating centres, and for the 3-star centres, we say that technology has advanced and offered better services.”

'Serving people and facilitating their lives'

Sheikh Mohammed also stressed that “serving people and facilitating their lives will remain the main pillar in the UAE government’s work and the ultimate goal of all its plans and programmes”.

He made the statements as he approved the results of the fourth edition of the Global Star Rating System for Services, which included the evaluation of 69 centres in 12 federal government entities.

The fourth cycle of the Global Star Rating System for Services witnessed two centres obtaining a six-star rating, 14 centres with five-star ratings, 32 centres with four-star ratings, and 21 centres had three-star ratings, in addition to 14 centres entering the evaluation process for the first time.

Improving transparency

The fourth edition of the Global Star Rating System for Services included evaluation by a selection of residents and the use of frequent visits by ‘mystery shoppers’ and their evaluations to improve transparency and accuracy in results and the use of feedbacks and comments of customers on social media, which ensures that service centres with government entities receive their due results, given that trust in the service is the basis of these evaluations.

Dubai skyline
The fourth cycle of the Global Star Rating System for Services witnessed two centres obtaining a six-star rating, 14 centres with five-star ratings, 32 centres with four-star ratings, and 21 centres had three-star ratings, in addition to 14 centres entering the evaluation process for the first time. Image Credit: Supplied

The UAE is the first in the world to adopt the classification of customer service centres according to the Global Star Rating System, which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed with the aim of improving government work and reshaping the concept of an innovative and integrated framework for providing government services and raising their efficiency to the best international standards to ensure customer satisfaction and improve people’s lives.

The system rates service centres based on the outcome of independent evaluation and assessment of customer experience. The result of the evaluation is recorded in the assessment report, which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the centre.

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The UAE Government launched the Global Star Rating System in 2012, aiming to bring about a quantum leap in the efficiency of government services as per global standards. This system rates service centres on a scale of two to seven stars based on the outcome of independent evaluation and assessment of customer experience. The result of the evaluation is recorded in the assessment report, which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the centre.

Service centres are evaluated once every two years and given a classification and evaluation report, which includes results of the customer satisfaction survey and feedback from mystery shoppers. If there is a significant deviation in the level of the service, the centre is reviewed again with a possibility to change the previous assessment and classification.