His Excellency Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb, may God bless him

It is with pleasure that we convey our greetings and sincerest wishes to you and to your fellow members of the Council of Ministers.

Our belief has always been profound in the importance of investing in human beings, developing and attending to their capabilities, and extending firm roots of confidence as our people see the economy advance steadily and promisingly. We have also been anxious to see our public institutions, involved in civil service, establish work traditions carrying all the advanced and civilised concepts that the expression — “civil service” — stands for. Civil Service institutions have been established to respond to the needs of citizens and investors, by providing the required core service in a distinctively excellent and civilised manner that depicts our legacy and Arab-Islamic identity. They should distinguish themselves with good conduct, amity, perfect work, and flawless performance.

We indicated this clearly in our first Speech from the Throne, we delivered in 1999. In that speech we specified that our Government shall proceed with concrete steps to restructure and modernise the administration, eliminate bureaucracy, update and simplify procedures and employ an institutionalised approach based on team work, thus opening the way for administrative cadres and leaderships capable of innovation and excellent performance.

We take pride in the fact that three quarters of the Jordanian public are young men and women, who demonstrate allegiance to their Jordanian Homeland and Arab nation. We aspire to provide this generation with the best services through Governmental institutions, with which they deal. Our objective in this respect is to enhance the concepts of belonging and good citizenship and to stress that civil service is an arena for excellence, giving, commitment and precision.

Thus, we depict a bright image of Jordan to whomever deals with Jordanian institutions from within the country or abroad.

Trusting in the Almighty God, I have decided to employ this civilised understanding of civil service, by stimulating civil servants to raise the standard of their work and firmly establish transparency, being the underlying concern in the various areas of civil service. Furthermore I have decided to establish an award, to be called the “King Abdullah II Award for Distinguished Governmental Performance and Transparency,” with the aim of enhancing the role of the public sector in the service of all sectors of the Jordanian society, as well as the investment community. This will be accomplished through disseminating awareness of the concepts of comprehensive management of quality and distinguished performance. The award will highlight the exceptional efforts of public sector institutions and show their accomplishments in developing their own systems and services. We intend for this prize to be the highest prize for excellence in the public sector at the national level.

I have entrusted His Royal Highness Prince Faisal Ibn Al-Hussein with the task of chairing this award's Board of Trustees, which shall have His Excellency, the Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court as its Deputy Chairman. Other members of the Board of Trustees shall be: Her Excellency the Minister of Social Development, His Excellency the Secretary General of the Prime Ministry, His Excellency Mr. Fadi Ghandour, and His Excellency Dr. Rif'at Fa'ouri. His Excellency the Director of Royal Court's Economic and Development Department shall serve as the Board's rapporteur.

Within two months from now, this Board of Directors shall submit a detailed report on the Award's program. To do so, the Board may seek help from local and international expertise in this area, in terms of the criteria, categories, evaluation mechanisms and the areas to be covered by the Award. This shall be carried out in accordance with a gradual scheme that starts with some institutions directly involved in dealing with citizens and investors and proceeding progressively to cover all our Governmental and public institutions.

I pray to the Almighty God to safeguard our beloved Jordan and to grant us success in our efforts to achieve the aspirations of our people for prosperity, progress and reaping the fruits of sustainable development for, as the Holy Quran says, { … be sure that God is your Protector — the Best to protect and the Best to help.} (Sura 8, Verse 40).

Abdullah II

Amman, 26 Jumada II Hijri
4 September 2002 AD