MoD staff make it onto the Civil Service Awards shortlist

The Civil Service awards exist to celebrate exceptional contribution and efforts of those who are employed in the civil service. As in past years, the MoD received 50 nominations across a number of awards and has been short listed in 7 categories.

If we debated the skill set of typical armed forces individual as against civilian employees, it would be fair to expect the nominations to be in areas of Leadership, Planning, perhaps decision making (aka procurement?) and team working. Many skills that exist inside and outside military life. So, what categories did MoD staff get short listed for?

-Human resource award (Education outreach programme) - the first surprise perhaps?

-Leadership Award (leading the Afghan police in key areas) - ok, no surprise this time.

-Programme Management Award (Air command) - again, obvious when one considers the logistics of moving man and machine.

-Procurement Award (Pan Government energy project) - perhaps a surprise for some who believe tax payers money is not best spent in some military areas - thus the pending SDSR?

-Public Value Award (Apache helicopter servicing - keeping them flying at minimal cost) - I don't have a view on this as a surprise or not.

-Innovation Award (Low visibility landing research) - A surprise for me simply because I thought private sector researches and manufactures and then sells into the MoD. What do I know, apparently not always.

-Sustainability Award (Met Office and its two super computers) - We all know the Met Office was set up as a division of the military as weather is a key element in planning. Thus, no surprise for me.

We all read about public sector inefficiency but the truth is that in most areas and most cases, the civil service play a crucial and flawless role much like our friends in the military.

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