Earlier today the Office of the Chief Secretary held its first Public Service Excellence and Improvement Awards ceremony at the Mayor’s Parlour.

The awards aim to recognise and celebrate excellence, improvement and development across the public service. The awards serve as a platform to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of government employees who have made significant contributions to the public service. It is expected that this recognition will not only boost the morale of staff but also help in spreading best practices across Government. The awards have been designed with the interest of employees at heart and all winners were selected by an independent external panel from nominations submitted by their fellow colleagues.

The award ceremony is set to become an annual event that will be eagerly anticipated by employees and will serve as a reminder of the government's commitment to its staff and the public, as well as a means of promoting a better service for all.

The awards and winners were as follows:

Project Achievement Award: This award recognises a department which has launched and executed an innovative project that has proven to benefit the service greatly.

Winner: GFIU: Project Nexus 


Runner-up: Gibraltar Youth Service – Partnership with Secondary Education 


The Rising Star Award: This award recognises the potential, professionalism and work ethic of an individual who is currently within the first 5 years of their Public Service career. 


Winner: Simha Belilo 


Runner-up: Lizanne Wood 


Inspirational Leadership Award – This award recognises individuals for setting direction, communicating and collaborating clearly and empowering colleagues to fulfil their potential. 


Winner: Samantha Duo 


Runner-up: Karl Netto 


Additionally, a posthumous award was afforded to the late Charles Collinson for his Inspirational Leadership throughout his almost 40 years in the Public Service. As a fitting tribute, and in his memory, the Inspirational Leadership Award will in future be renamed to the ‘Charles Collinson Award for Inspirational Leadership’.

The Chief Secretary Darren Grech, said: ‘We are very fortunate in Gibraltar to have such excellence and talent in our Public Service and I would like to congratulate all of our winners for their very well deserved recognition. The ultimate goal is to progress towards a modern public service that is more skilled, innovative, ambitious and cooperative. By recognising and celebrating outstanding performance we aim to further enhance our culture of excellence and continuous improvement.’

The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: ‘These past few years have been very, very difficult indeed. We have had to deal with, amongst other things, a pandemic and the negotiations for a treaty on Gibraltar’s future relationship with the EU. Our Public Servants have been the backbone throughout this process and we simply could not have done the things we have done for Gibraltar and its people without them. On behalf of the Government, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and look forward to seeing these awards develop further in coming years.’