The General Administration of Customs – Abu Dhabi wins at GovMedia Conference & Awards 2026
The organisation built an IT governance ecosystem and expanded intelligent automation across core public service operations.
The General Administration of Customs – Abu Dhabi won the United Arab Emirates Governance Project of the Year - Customs and United Arab Emirates Modernization Initiative of the Year - Customs at the GovMedia Conference & Awards 2026 for two programmes that strengthened IT governance and automated operational workflows across customs, HR, finance, audit, IT, and trade functions.
From fragmented IT controls to governed operations
Its IT Governance Transformation Program was developed to address inconsistent processes, limited performance visibility, and gaps in integrated risk oversight. The programme brought together ITIL adoption, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 20000-1 certifications, COBIT alignment, automation, and KPI-based governance under a unified operating model.
The governance stack linked ARIS, CyberArrow, Siyasate, Tawquie, the IT Governance Portal, and the Performance Management System to support policy control, process design, approvals, evidence management, and reporting. The IT Department also contributed to enterprise-level certifications covering quality management, data quality, risk management, asset management, and business continuity management.
Through this programme, the organisation improved audit performance, strengthened service controls, and gave decision-makers clearer access to governance data. External validation also supported the maturity of its IT service management practices, with the audit report noting compliance with ISO/IEC 20000-1 requirements and recommending continuation of the certificate.
Automation across public service workflows
The Digital Workforce Transformation through Intelligent Automation (RPA & AI) programme used the Automation Anywhere RPA platform to automate high-volume processes across finance, HR, customs, auditing, and reporting. It integrated RPA with ERP systems, banking platforms, customs and trade platforms, business intelligence tools, Microsoft Teams, and AI-enabled document intelligence.
The initiative handled system integration, data reconciliation, exception handling, document validation, audit automation, and automated reporting. It also supported employee notifications, compliance checks, and data-based decision support, reducing repetitive manual work and improving the consistency of operational controls.
In delegation auditing, RPA accessed the Dhabi system, retrieved documents, extracted required information, compared records, applied verification rules, and prepared reports for approval, rejection, suspension, or exception review. The programme also supported data validation and transfer for Etihad-Dafrah integration, as well as customs-related document checks using Generative AI-based document intelligence.
GovMedia Conference & Awards gives recognition to the trends and best practices that transform the public sector in the Asia Pacific. The awards programme promotes excellence and provides a platform for exemplary government initiatives.
The GovMedia Conference & Awards is presented by GovMedia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be recognised for your organisation's government projects and initiatives, please contact Marni Marco at +(65) 3158 1386 and [email protected].
