The first Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) Annual Planning Forum concluded its six-day activities where the plans and projects of support activities and resources for the Shared Services Affairs sector were reviewed and discussed.
In his speech at the conclusion of the activities of the forum, organised by the Planning and Quality Department in the Ministry, HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Subaie stressed the importance of the role that the Shared Services Affairs Department plays, as it is the main engine of the ministry and has a role and great effect on enabling factors and achieving the goals of all sectors of the ministry in the field of human and financial resources, information systems technology and administrative services, and which contribute strongly to building the training and development capabilities of human cadres working in the ministry.
The minister said that MME is considered as one of the largest ministries in the country in terms of tasks, specialisations and human cadres, and therefore the ministry has an opportunity to reshape the ministry’s approach in the field of human resources and to formulate and define our priorities in general.
The minister also directed to enhance the specialised and technical jobs needed to attract Qataris to compete in the labour market, with new generations of officials and employees to take responsibility, pointing out the need to focus on professional development through specialised training programmes to fill shortages for the job.
During his speech to the ministry’s assistant undersecretaries and directors of municipalities and departments, the minister stressed the importance of setting up a strict financial and supervisory system in order to strengthen oversight, control and collection of revenues and the provision of electronic services and applications to assist employees in performing their work and to facilitate and accelerate services provided to the public.
He also called for the need to simplify procedures of services provided to the ministry’s clients, in order to achieve customer satisfaction particularly for services provided by the Urban Planning Affairs Sector.
Regarding the organisation of the first annual planning forum, the minister praised the level of the visual presentations made by the ministry’s assistant undersecretaries and directors of departments, which are considered an integrated plan for guidance during the next process in the ministry.
He also praised the level of preparation for the important forum by the Planning and Quality Department, stressing the importance of the sessions and workshops that lasted for
20 hours over a period of six days, and hoped that this forum becomes a motive for following up the plans through periodic meetings every three months.
The forum had discussed, in the 9th session on the closing day, the plans and projects for support activities and resources for the Shared Services Affairs sector, where Assistant Undersecretary for Common Services Affairs at the ministry, Hamad Khalifa al-Khalifa, presented the sector work plan.
The session also included presentations of the plans and projects of the departments of the sector.
The first annual planning forum concluded that there are great opportunities to develop the building permit service, simplify its procedures and to set a clear indication for all categories of projects, whether large or small, and educate owners about it, as well as the use of geographic information systems for waste management operations, especially hazardous and environmental matters, and setting up a methodology to work on enhancing community communication, especially on social media platforms, to reduce the circulation of misinformation and work to correct it quickly. In the municipal affairs sector, the forum recommended the need to focus on customer satisfaction and to facilitate and simplify the procedures of the services provided, and the need to benefit from the unified call centre and customer service. It also sought to ensure that laws are practised in a correct and proper manner, especially those related to priority services.
In the public services affairs sector, the forum concluded that it is necessary to encourage recycling and treatment of waste so that Qatar will be a model at the regional level in the field of recycling, and in the increase of green spaces.
With regard to the agricultural and fisheries sector, the forum emphasised the importance of setting up a mechanism and co-ordination between the sectors of “agriculture, environment and municipalities” and integrating them in the work as well as providing an internal database in co-operation with information systems (IT) and geographic information systems (GIS) for the topics of agricultural research and animal production.
Regarding the Shared Services Affairs sector, the forum recommended intensifying efforts towards completing the automation of services provided to the public, and conversion of services to digital, so that it does not require the presence of the customer.