geoffboon90

Who has experience of working for the Government of Dubai? What do you think of the general day-to-day way things are run?

LakesLassie

Slowly!

Border Reiver

Even more slowly during Ramadan

Face81

Hello Geoff. Welcome to the site.

The general day to day functioning of things has no doubt improved over the last decade with all the e-governance and such, but still, in general, things take alot of time, un necessary translation of things into Arabic and please dont get me started on the cattle like procedure we must all endure to get our visas renewed.

Oh and the way they keep changing laws and regulations at the drop of a hat... it really doesnt help with their credibility. Apart from that, Dubai is a fantastic city-state, just like Richard Branson said, "Dubai is the best run conglomerate in the World!"

Enjoy the site!

karenb2

Hi Face,

I just had to put in a reply. I have recently lost my daughter's passport. I lost it somewhere between the airport, Dubai taxis and home. i am convinced it must have been lost in the taxi on the way home. I think it must have fallen out of my bag when I opened it to pay the driver.

Of course, it hasn't been found anywhere. Its probably been sold to the highest bidder. So, I have spent days in the government buildings, immigration department and the police, filling out forms, and then having to have them typed into arabic before they would accept them. Then having them photpcopied. That was before I could go to the British embassy to request a new passport. Two weeks later, I have got the new passport and the whole scenario has started again.

I went to immigration yesterday with the police report, the printout that immigration gave me and thought it would be a simple task of having the resident visa put back into her new passport. But oh no, not in Dubai. I went from counter to counter, in the cattle market of a place. They then sent me away and told me to come back after 2 days even though I told them I needed it urgently as we are travelling on Sat / Sun. I was waved away and more or less told 'tough''.

And thats not the end of it. I am informed that once I get the visa back in the passport I have to then return to the police department to get a letter which will allow my daughter to leave the country. I thought just getting the residence visa back would be the end of it.

So, my experience of government departments is just crap. There is so much arsing around for such menial tasks. You walk in the door and it is full to the brim of people wanting to be served immediately. You are being served at the counter and someone comes alongside and interupts regardless. They are so rude in these places. Also, there never seems to be any sort of a system in place and the staff all seem as if they can't be bothered to sort out your problem. I am fed up of being passed from one counter to another without any explanation. Unfortunately, I have to return again to the cattle market on Saturday to see if the visa is in place. Wish me luck............

So, geoffboon, if you are thinking of getting a job in the government here then all I can say is good luck. You will definately need it. its the last place on earth I would want to work............although maybe its about time that some expats took over the running of these places and organise the workforce into a more competent and efficient system.

Border Reiver

Karen, I'm sorry but not surprised to hear about your problems. I renewed my car registration yesterday, which is a minor hassle in comparison but the process went smothly and everybody I delt with was polite. The problems seem to start when something out of the ordinary needs doing. Anything none routine seems to take forever.

Face81

Hiya karen,

Sounds like you have had a right mess of a time at with all the red tape..... its always the same old story. They really need to get their act together and improve on efficiency!

Face81

hahahaha........

just noticed this post of urs...... lololololol

have given you a generous amount of k for it!

Truth Speak

I hadn't realised there was a government dep't - just a confulsed , fragmented group of people occupying chairs and cubbyholes in offices spread over the length and breadth of Dubai !!

geoffboon90

Ummm!

Interesting, thanks for all the comments. I work for the government of Dubai but on one of the high profile commercial projects.

I've been here one year and like all the views above, it's infuriating at times. Efficiency is not the word of the day.

Within my dept to get something done involves three rounds of budgeting and then approval from somebody so high up they don't actually know the importance or detail of what you are doing, and then I have to justify it all over again.

I suspect there are only 5 people that can get things done within the gov of Dubai. They clearly don't trust experienced people they orginally hired to carry out specialised work.

Truth Speak

Geoff - theres a book called the ARAB WAY written by a Saudi for westerners. What we believe are unending layers of beurocracy, decisions that take years and immensly steep hiearchical layers are apparently natural traits of the culture. The books a real eye opener on this subject and the 'collectivism' i.e. everyone sits around and gives a problem a good case of talking about but nothing ever seems to get done. APparently the real decision makers are always hidden. The books on the rack at teh airport and in Magrudys.

Glad i'm not alone

take it easy

TS

Desert Dweller

There is an old joke about a local Arab who tries to get a job with the government. Unfortunately he had been castrated at puberty. On being told he had been given the job, his boss told him that he could leave work at 10am, unlike all his colleagues who had to stay until 2.30. Upon asking why, he was told that after finishing reading the paper, he would be bored not having any balls to scratch.

Unfortunately the systems in many of the GCC countries were set up by the British in the early 70's and as the rest of the world has computerised and standardised, many GCC countries are still built on a house of cards. many private companies are higher-tech than their own governments! I remember once having to fax an online form!

Jellybean

Hit the nail on the head geoff

Nabs

True true true

I just want to draw all ur attentions to the common mistake I’ve realized which when u use the word “Arab” most of you mean by that Locals, Saudis Kuwaitis and other Gulf Countries, where is includes all the countries from Mauritania to Egypt to Iraq Oman, they are all Arabs, Lebanese are Arabs, Tunisians are Arabs etc etc.

The problems we face here are not an “Arab” thing, it’s a Gulf thing, if u know what I mean.

Face81

Heh heh.... i like the "ummm" bit best. lol

Hmmmmm...... the 5 peopple you are talking about..... lets c if i am any good at guessing...

First we have the all powerful super trio that is Maktoum Inc.
Then we probably have the Director of Dubai Municipality and
finally, the chairman of Emirates?

Does that sound right Geoff?