Saif bin Zayed honours winners of seventh edition of Minister of Interior’s Excellence Award

ABU DHABI, 17th February, 2026 (WAM) — Lieutenant General H.H. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, honoured the winners of the seventh edition of the Minister of Interior’s Excellence Award during a ceremony held at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.

The event reflects the Ministry of Interior’s commitment to fostering a culture of institutional excellence, promoting positive competition, and enhancing the quality of security and community services.

The ceremony was attended by Counselor Saif Abdullah Al Shafar, Major General Khalifa Hareb Al Khaili, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, Major General Ahmed Saif bin Zaitoun Al Muhairi, Commander-in-Chief of Abu Dhabi Police, Major General Abdullah Mubarak bin Amer, Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police, Major General Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Inspector General of the Ministry of Interior, Major General Salem Ali Mubarak Al Shamsi, Assistant Undersecretary for Resources and Support Services, the Commanders-in-Chief of Police across the UAE, members of the Permanent Higher Committee for Excellence and Leadership at the Ministry of Interior, strategy directors, coordinators of leadership and sectors, the award’s administrative team, a number of guests, and officers and personnel from the Ministry of Interior and the General Police Commands in the UAE.

The ceremony honoured 191 winners from participating individuals and organisations, and three recipients of the Community Service Medal, across 46 categories.

The categories included 28 institutional and police categories, 16 functional categories, and two categories in the field of community service, reflecting the award’s comprehensiveness and the diversity of its categories, encompassing institutional, individual, and community excellence.

Brigadier Dr. Faisal Sultan Al-Shuaibi, Director General of Strategy and Performance Development at the Ministry of Interior, affirmed that the Minister of Interior’s Award for Excellence represents a strategic platform for stimulating innovation, developing human capabilities, and consolidating leadership, readiness, and sustainability in various areas of police work.

He added that this aligns with the UAE government’s vision and reinforces the UAE’s position as a global model for advanced security work.

Al-Shuaibi explained that the award is based on an integrated system of success factors, most notably the support of the senior leadership, clear criteria and good governance, the efficiency of the judging and evaluation committees, and a rigorous evaluation methodology that combines desk and field assessments.

He said the Award supported by evidence and documentation to ensure the reliability and credibility of the results.

He pointed out that the seventh cycle was distinguished by its high level of participation and intensive nationwide evaluation efforts, encompassing 436 files. Twenty-six expert security professionals from several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Australia, participated in the process.

The evaluation spanned 51 days of on-site assessments and 35 days of remote assessments, during which they conducted 688 field visits and audits, totaling 1,108.8 hours of evaluation over a six-week period, all within a rigorous governance framework that ensured fairness and transparency” he explained “.

Al-Shuaibi explained that the seventh session witnessed the introduction of new awards to promote the Ministry’s strategic directions, including the category of promising leaders, people of determination, and police scholarship recipients at the functional level, in addition to the categories of best community initiative and best police practice at the institutional level, with the aim of promoting innovation and empowering national competencies.

He stressed that the Ministry of Interior continues to develop the award system and its criteria in line with the rapid transformations in government work, enhances the quality of security and community services, and consolidates the country’s position at the forefront of global excellence indicators.