Executive Council Delegation visits Dubai Customs
Governmental Services Development Team from the Executive Council visited Dubai Customs on Sunday morning, July 26th, 2009 to be familiar with the services given by the Department to its clients and the efforts made to develop them. This comes as part of updating the project of Dubai Government Strategic Plan fifth hub “Governmental Sector Development Hub”.
The delegation was received by Mr. Yousif Al Sahlawi, Executive Director of Legislations and Policies and Mr. Mohammed Matter Al Marri, Executive Director of Cargo Operations Division as well as a number of directors and managers at the Department. The delegation included Ms. Shama Bin Hamad Head of Service Reengineering Unit, Ms. Eman Ismail, Senior Consultant of Service Development Department and Mr. AlHadi Edris, Project Manager of Service Improvement Department.
Mr. Al Sahlawi welcomed the delegation as he wished them success at work and promised to support the team with the utmost help to enable them to achieve their tasks.
The Executive Director of Legislations and Policies Division in Dubai Customs suggested: "Sharing successful and unique experiences among all government departments with all government corporations in Dubai in order to benefit from and boost services rendered to clients since government corporations in Dubai function as an entity whose services are highly important. Thus, consistency of providing services must be adopted in order to unify the level of services among all departments".
Al Sahlawi pointed out some of the pioneer practices which received awards from Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP). He also confirmed that such practices should be shared as long as the objective is not the prize itself but to completely and comprehensively develop governmental performance in Dubai as a whole.
On the other hand, Ms. Shama Bin Hamad thanked Dubai Customs for its hospitality and confirmed: "This visit comes as a part of the kick-off preparations of the second phase to set initiatives and strategic projects in Dubai. The Governmental Service Development Team was assigned to visit governmental bodies believing in advancement and the necessity to launch future development plans based on the broad understanding of the efforts that are currently taken in this field."
Ms Eman Esmail briefly highlighted the work performed by Governmental Services Development Team as well as studies and projects executed during the past period which emphasized on improving governmental services competence, achieving clients' satisfaction and supporting the concept of the connected government.
A number of Sections Managers and experts in the Department presented the list of services Dubai Customs offers to its clients giving a short brief about each, and the outstanding efforts the Department undertakes to develop them. Moreover, a short presentation about the projects and initiatives aspired to develop services was given; for example, launching Tarjim Service which allows customers to submit their complaints and receive responses in their own language through seven languages.
Dubai Customs gives great interest to individuals of special needs. Therefore, it translated the Client Services Charter into Brill Language for blind people in cooperation with Emirates Association for the Blind. In addition, some of Dubai Customs employees at Dubai Airport Customer Services and different customs centers received training on how to use sign language in order to support them while taking into account other employees who shall be offered similar training courses later on.
Furthermore, most significant success stories Dubai Customs achieved were demonstrated. Out of which is the Department's first worldwide of its kind; ISO 2007:10001 for its Client Service Charter and ISO 2004:20002 for its Customers Complaints System.
Clients' satisfaction towards processing complaints reached 100% during the first quarter of 2009 while the percentage of communication with clients with regards to the proposed suggestions reached 80% during the first quarter of 2009. Such figures are considered one of the highest outcomes achieved in Dubai Government.
Worth mentioning, Lloyds Register Company has listed Dubai Customs expertise in the field of handling customers' complaints on its official website, as a leading study case among the most excellent experiences of the largest International successful corporations.
Some government departments and semi-government corporations in Dubai contacted Dubai Customs to be acquainted with such exceptional expertise so as to benefit from it.
