In the feverish pursuit of “efficiency”, America’s recently minted Department of Government Efficiency – or Doge – has wielded the axe more than the scalpel. Launched with a lot of fanfare as an initiative by US President Donald Trump in his second term and led by the now persona-non-grata Elon Musk, the programme promised to slash wasteful spending, streamline bureaucracy and reinvent the federal government.
What it delivered was a far cry from its mandate. Instead of the much-lauded $1 trillion in savings, the public witnessed a chaotic unravelling of vital institutions, a mass exodus of experienced civil servants and a string of legal challenges from employee unions.
Meanwhile, almost 13,000 kilometres away, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement – known as DGE – has quietly shown what real transformation looks like. Methodical, data-driven and rooted in co-operation and citizen trust.
The 18-month-old department shies away from the limelight. Labelling itself as the “team behind the teams”, it exists with the mandate to “deliver quality services, increase efficiencies and offer one clear unified approach to customer-centricity”.
The differences between Doge and DGE are stark despite their superficial similarity in name and intent. They both want to make their respective governments more efficient, but the fork in the road comes when looking at semantics. What does efficiency mean?
While Mr Musk focused public attention on how much money he was going to save the US government, Abu Dhabi’s DGE prioritises a different asset: time. By using artificial intelligence and other workflow-reducing measures, the intent is to limit time spent by employees on mundane bureaucratic tasks that can be outsourced to AI, freeing them up to focus on more important things such as streamlining the customer experience.
Attention is paid to metrics such as hours and steps saved, as well as reducing needless paperwork, all in an effort to allow employees to spend more time on “human-facing” tasks. On the other side of the counter, the intent is to reduce the need for residents to attend service centres, thereby saving both time and reducing emissions from unnecessary vehicle use.
And despite its relatively young existence, DGE has already made significant inroads. The “AI-Powered Objective Builder” – technology designed to reduce hours spent on annual employee goals – was successfully trialled within DGE and is now in use across 38 government bodies making life easier for more than 15,000 employees. Similarly, social services such as social support requests, which offer financial assistance for low-income families, had processing times reduced to 18 days from 90 after the introduction of digital payments and a digital wallet.
Looking to the future, a recent report from DGE highlighted areas in the workplace set to be transformed, particularly by AI, and has already prompted the implication of strategies to incorporate these changes.
Meanwhile, after cutting health department and scientific research grants, gutting the agency created for consumer protection and all but closing USAID, a department that provided food and health care internationally, Doge’s online “wall of receipts” claimed a saving of $180 billion. Multiple analyses show the maths to not quite add up.
This is not to say that DGE does not positively affect Abu Dhabi’s bottom line. Its Digital Strategy plans to deliver a Dh24 billion ($6.5 billion) boost to the economy and add 5,000 jobs. But this is a by-product rather than a goal.
Apart from a significant difference in priorities, there is a critical component to DGE’s success: co-operation. Each government department in the emirate is equally committed to what’s deemed “customer happiness”, which makes life possible for the agency. That’s more than 40 governmental entities working together, sharing data, for the benefit of UAE citizens and residents.
Tamm, the super-app recently mentioned by Microsoft’s president and vice chairman, Brad Smith, at a US senate hearing, is one of DGE’s flagship initiatives and a direct result of this co-operation between entities and sharing of data. Of the app – which simplifies the process of renewing driver licences, reporting potholes, obtaining various forms and other services – the tech chief said: “We need to bring it to America.”
Incidentally, although Tamm may have saved the government Dh134 million, it is the 4.1 million government working hours that the app recouped that is the real jewel in its crown.
To say there has been infighting between the head of Doge and the US government would be an understatement. The public feud between Mr Trump and Mr Musk played out online, resulting in threats and accusations before the latter’s 130-day mandate as a special government employee expired on May 30. America’s growing issue with polarisation potentially causes a rift that ultimately inhibits a properly functioning government from doing its job: making citizens and residents’ lives better.
If America wants a leaner, smarter government, it would do well to take a page from a place that’s building the future quietly.
