ALMAS PHASE 1 ENDS ON A SUCCESSFUL NOTE

Dubai UAE

Sallam Sallam

The Department of Finance for the Government of Dubai (DOF) announced that it has successfully completed phase 1 of Dubai Government Services Costing Programme, which included five main government entities. Named ‘ALMAS’, the programme aims to enhance transparency and precise costing of government services provided to the public, in order to contribute in achieving the Dubai Plan 2021 by applying the highest standards of financial sustainability and the development of government resources.

Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh, DOF Director General said: “The government services costing programme supports strategic decisions of pricing government services, in order to enhance quality of life and improve customer happiness, and to contribute in making Dubai one of the happiest cities on earth, as well as to assist process of allocation of resources and support budget decisions.”

“Issued by Executive Council Resolution No. 48 of 2017 and came into effect two years ago, the programme, falls within the responsibilities of DOF, which oversees its implementation, to enhance government financial activities, as well as its vital role of supervising all financial and accountability matters of the Dubai Government,” he added.

In its first phase, ALMAS is applied on five government entities: Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai Customs, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Police and Department of Economic Development, in partnership with Dubai the Model Center. The revenues of these five entities alone amount to about half of the total government revenues in the emirate.

The first phase has done costing of services provided by the five entities. These costing covered 1,348 front line government services provided to individuals, private companies and government entities, as well as 1,350 other services of support offices, known as internal services.

“Phase 1 of ALMAS programme is successful and fruitful”, said Jamal Hamed Al Marri, Executive Director of the Central Accounts Sector at DOF. “DOF is keen to achieve social justice by applying the best standards to imposing and collection of government fees processes in Dubai, in line with the directives of Dubai’s wise leadership, and within the framework of DOF’s continuous efforts,” he added.

“It is important to achieve balanced government revenues from the various government channels, for the public interest,” said Reham Mohammad Karmostaji, Director of Public Revenues Division. “It is also necessary that the government has the process of service costing clear in order to reach the most appropriate pricing decisions.”

“ALMAS Phase 1, which lasted for 15 months, saw more than 50 employees taking part in different work teams of the project. More than 250 meetings were held, and data on government services was collected from 700 different organisational units in the five experimental entities, in addition to more than 80 hour of training provided to relevant employees through 27 online training sessions,” she concluded.