The Royal Court Affairs (RCA) honoured its top performing employees and retirees during a ceremony held at the grand hall of Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat on Thursday. The ceremony was held under the auspices of Nasr bin Hamoud al Kindi, Secretary-General of the Royal Court Affairs. The ceremony comes as a translation of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos’s emphasis on the importance of human resources as a key pillar for sustainable development. The ceremony started with the Royal anthem, followed by a recitation of the Holy Quran, a video highlighting the honouring ceremony at the Royal Court Affairs for 2019.
The Honouring
The ceremony witnessed the honouring of a number of employees of the Royal Court Affairs in Muscat based on job excellence, long-term service, retirees, employees with outstanding achievements and projects, and those who excelled in academic qualification, employees with outstanding initiatives and proposals, and those who excelled at military courses. In addition, medals of long service, good conduct and special service were awarded to number of military personnel.
Job excellence
Employees who met the criterion of job excellence through competition with the units’ employees and proved their competence and proficiency in the tasks assigned to them were feted as well.
Long service
In this category, employees who have completed twenty-five years of service with the Royal Court Affairs were honoured to encourage them to exert more effort in their remaining years of service.
Retirees
The honouring in this category was based on the keenness of the Royal Court Affairs to extend thanks and gratitude to the retirees in recognition of the efforts and dedication they showed during their years in service.
Achievements and outstanding projects
This category comprises employees with leading achievements and outstanding projects who have won advanced awards on both the local and international levels throughout their career. This included the employees who excelled in job performance as well as those who providing excellent services to the Royal Court Affairs and those who conducted scientific researches and studies.
Academic qualification
The academic qualification category includes outstanding employees who have completed their bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degrees graduating with high ranks. The honouring was also aimed to encourage employees who are currently studying to obtain degrees.
Constructive initiatives and proposals
Employees who submitted ideas that have contributed to an easy and successful accomplishment of tasks and those who contributed to the improvement of the working system and finding better alternatives for a smooth-running work have been honoured with a view to encouraging them and their colleagues to further improve their work environment.
Excellent driver
The award came as an encouragement to the drivers of the Royal Court Affairs as well as to enhance traffic safety in the Sultanate and reduce accidents in response to the Royal Orders of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. This year, corporal Abdullah bin Sulaiman al Maamari received the excellent driver award. Speaking at the honouring ceremony, Al Maamari said: “This honouring is a proof of the Royal Court Affairs’ attention to traffic safety and its keenness to instil this attention into the employees. As a driver, I have always been committed disciplined driving, and this honour motivates me to continue to adhere to traffic safety rules.”
Outstanding employees on the units’ level
In this category, only one employee from each unit is selected to receive the award and the selection is made in accordance to competitive criteria and standards. The CVs of the employees selected from the RCA’s units are presented to a group of employees from different units to vote for the most suitable candidate for the honouring. This year’s award was claimed by Ibrahim bin Ahmed bin Mehad Qatan from the Royal Farms and Gardens.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ahmed said: “I am proud to be chosen from among my colleagues to receive the prize for this year and I thank Allah Almighty for the award. This award gives me a greater responsibility towards my job and also motivates me to exert more efforts and to work diligently in the upcoming period.”
Frankincense Land Operetta
The ceremony concluded with an artistic operetta entitled Frankincense Land, which shed light on Oman’s frankincense and its history, highlighting the most prominent historical features as well as the land and maritime routes that were used for frankincense trade. It also highlighted the ancient kingdoms and civilisations to which the Omani frankincense was exported. The operetta was accompanied by five musicals corresponding to the topic and documenting the various stages of frankincense from harvest to consumption. The operetta may be viewed on the Honouring Committee’s YouTube channel.
Following the ceremony, Nasr bin Hamoud al Kindi said: “The Royal Court Affairs today celebrates the honouring of a number of its employees and retirees. The honouring comes as a translation of the Royal visions that are included in the speeches of His Majesty the Sultan in which he always calls for attention to be accorded to human resources. This honouring contributes positively and effectively to developing the performance of the Royal Court Affairs employees so that they can exert more effort to successfully and efficiently accomplish the tasks assigned to them.”
Al Kindi added that this ceremony is aimed to honour employees in recognition of their efforts and giving, and to extend thanks and gratitude to the retirees for the services they rendered during their tenure at the Royal Court Affairs.
Ali bin Shuwain al Rawahi, Adviser for Organisation and Head of the Honouring Committee at the Royal Court Affairs, said that this honouring comes as a continuation of the journey of motivation that began in 2005. It brings together all the Royal Court Affairs employees to ensure honest competition between the employees.
It is worth noting that the Royal Court Affairs is keen on holding the honouring ceremony every year based on its belief on the importance of motivating and honouring outstanding employees in all the units as the honouring of excellent employees boosts the efficiency of employees and drives them to increase their productivity. The beginning was in 2005 when the RCA felt the need for paying attention to human resources. In the year 2005, a small number of employees were honoured in a simplified ceremony that lacked the festive mood that we see today.
The honouring ceremony also featured many works of art highlighting love of the nation and its leader. These artworks are constantly being broadcast on the local media. This year’s ceremony has seen a new contribution that should be presented to the society stemming from our adherence to our history and identity and the need to preserve the nation and its capabilities.
Ghassan bin Mohammed al Qutbi from the Directorate-General of Information and Communications Technology, who received the award in the job excellence category, said: “The working environment at Royal Court Affairs inspires excellence and the holding of such ceremonies motivates us towards a better performance. This honouring will have a big effect in motivating the winners to exert more effort and encouraging our colleagues to strive to attain similar honouring.”
Sultan bin Mansour al Qasimi, who won the job excellence award, said: “My honouring in this category drives me to exert more effort during the course of my career. I thank those who have overseen this ceremony for their careful selection of the outstanding employees. I would like to confirm that this honouring will drive the employees to improve their job performance.”
Ahmed bin Saif al Rawahi, from the RCA Security Unit, who was honoured for long service, said: “I have been honoured to work at the RCA, putting myself under the service of the nation and its leader for the past 25 years. This honouring gives me the motivation to exert more effort during my remaining years of service.”
Sergeant Mansour bin Nasser al Farsi from the Royal Yachts, who was honoured for long service, thanked the Royal Court Affairs for the honour.
Retired corporal Hamad bin Saif al Hadrami said that this honour comes as a recognition from the Royal Court Affairs for the long years of service. “I am so happy with this honouring and even happier to meet with officials and colleagues with whom we worked for long years in the service of this dear country. This honour represents a message that the effort we made during our service was not in vain.”
“I would like to express our gratitude to the organisers of this ceremony,” said retiree Hamad bin Mohammed al Rashidi. “To be honoured after long years of service at the RCA is a good gesture to thank the retirees for the efforts they had taken during their years in service.”
Retiree Salem bin Said al Habsi said: “This honouring means a lot for me after many years of service at the Royal Court Affairs as a reminder of the employee’s services to be appreciated for his/her endeavour. I pray to Allah the Almighty to protect His Majesty the Sultan and grant him long life, and safeguard and secure the Sultanate.”
Fatima bint Ramadan al Zedjaliyah, from the Directorate-General of Transport, stressed that reaching this competitive stage with excellent employees at the units level motivates them to exert more effort and develop new ideas that serve the interests of work.
Dr Samer bin Habib al Balushi, from the Directorate-General of Veterinary Services, said: “This honouring is considered as an incentive for the continuation and development of the scientific researches with the aim of developing the employees’ capabilities and skills, which will benefit both the employee and the work environment. Since the beginning of my study, I have set up my goal to scale this platform and that motivated me towards achieving the highest grades at my doctorate degree.”
Dr Raya bint Hamdan al Nassiriyah, who got an award for the academic qualification excellence, expressed her delight for being honoured after obtaining her doctorate degree. She said such honouring motivates the employees towards excellence in academic studies.
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