SARS wins third Grand Prix in a row at the third Annual Public Sector Excellence™ Awards;
Drs Brigalia Bam & Sam Motsuenyane recognised with Lifetime Achievement awards for Distinguished Public Service;
Health Department takes Grand Prix for the Government’s HIV Awareness Campaign
31 January 2012
Johannesburg, South Africa: The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has won a total of four Public Service Excellence™ (PSX) Awards, recognising its all-round excellence in serving South Africans during the past 12 months.
Another stand-out winner was the Department of Basic Education which, despite a challenging year, distinguished itself as top Government Department under the leadership of Angie Motshekga.
Government’s HIV Awareness campaign was recognised with a Grand Prix award.
The event, held in Sandton on Tuesday night, was attended by over 200 decision-makers from both the public and private sector, who looked on as Lifetime Achievement Awards for Distinguished Public Service were made to Drs Brigalia Bam and Sam Motsuenyane. They were honoured by the PSX Advisory Council for dedicating themselves over the years to improving the lives of South Africans.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was the key note speaker at the event.
“Continuing to set the benchmark for excellent service in the Public Sector, SARS and Basic Education distinguished themselves amongst their peers having made a positive impression on ordinary South Africans, as proved by the PSX survey conducted in 2011,” said Thebe Ikalafeng, Group MD of The Brand Leadership Group and founder of Public Sector Excellence™. The survey was conducted by TNS Research Surveys in partnership with the Brand Leadership Academy.
In addition to the Grand Prix Award, SARS also won three other Gold Awards in the categories: Effectiveness, Service Orientation and Sector Excellence.
In the Leadership category, State President Jacob Zuma was voted as the country’s top leader.
The Public Sector Excellence™ Awards are an independent assessment and celebration of excellence in the public service as voted by its customers, the citizens. The survey was conducted amongst a random nationally and demographically representative sample of 1500 was conducted between May and June 2011.
According to Ikalafeng, what makes the Grand Prix awards in particular so prestigious is that they are based not only on citizens’ feedback, but also on the input of an Advisory Council comprising prominent public and private sector thought leaders, decision makers and academics.
“The panel filtered the results substantiated with a review of existing qualitative and objective quantitative publicly available data and reports such as annual reports, auditor general reports, media reports, public perception surveys,” he said.
In awarding the Grand Prix Public Sector Excellence™ recognition, the panel relies on the PSX Reputation Index results to select the finalists and further filters the results against the following criteria of (1) delivery on institutional mandate, (2) governance and leadership, (3) prudent use of public money (return on investment), (4) transformation, (5) service delivery, (6) accountability (e.g. clean audits) and (7) national and global recognition by other independent institutions and peers.
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