Dubai management shake-up said to encourage accountability

The management shakeup that took place at the Dubai municipality this week following spot checks by ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum signals that the government is serious about transparency and accountability, analysts told Argaam.

Al Maktoum made a surprise visit on Sunday to the offices of various government departments – including the Department of Economic Development, the Dubai Land Department and the Dubai Municipality – only to find that several employees were absent from work.

“Dubai is sending a very clear message about good public governance that hopefully will reverberate in other Arab countries: that accountability and rule of law must underlie authority and power and that no one is immune,” said Nassir Saidi, an economist and president of Dubai-based Nasser Saidi & Associates.

A video posted online by the Dubai Media Office showed the leader walking around an empty office during his spot check.

Nine senior officials at the Dubai Municipality were ordered to retire a day after Al Maktoum’s surprise visit, according to a decree published on UAE state news agency WAM.

The decree, however, didn’t draw a link between the lay-offs and the inspection, noting instead that it was prompted by Sheikh Mohammed’s “keenness to provide opportunity to the new generation of young leaders to assume development responsibility.”

The timing of the spot check is significant as it coincides not only with the beginning of the academic year in the UAE, but also the start of Dubai’s busy fall season, which will see the opening of major attractions, said Theodore Karasik, senior advisor at Gulf State Analytics. 

The inspections suggest that Sheikh Mohammed is eager to ensure that civil servants are doing their jobs, said Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at London-based Capital Economics.

“Dubai is trying to shrug off the ‘laziness’ image of many bureaucrats in the Gulf,” he added.

On Tuesday, Sheikh Mohammed said the UAE needs “fresh thinking and new blood” to realize its ambitions and meet the challenges of the next phase of development.

“A government job is a lifelong mission to serve the people,” he said, quoted by WAM. 

Write to Jerusha Sequeira at jerusha.s@argaamnews.com