Sheikh Mohammed wanted “to send a message” by making a surprise visit to government offices on Sunday. Just a day later top execs at one of those offices were retired…

Yesterday morning H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the UAE, paid a surprise visit to various Dubai government departments.

His tour started at 7.30am and video of it shows the Sheikh inspecting empty offices, with top management reportedly late for work:

One of the offices he visited yesterday on his Undercover Boss-like tour was Dubai Municipality, and yesterday evening he announced a reshuffle of that government department’s executive management.

He has enforced management changes that will mean the retirement of nine Dubai Municipality officials, effective immediately. The retired officials include the Municipality’s legal counsel, it’s deputy director-general, the assistant director-general for corporate support, the assistant director-general for engineering and planning and the director of the buildings department.

The government media office reported that his “orders came as part of his keenness to provide opportunity to the new generation of young leaders to assume development responsibility during the next phase” and are “in line with Dubai Government’s basic standards for provision of top quality services to the public”.

MORE ON HIS OFFICE VISIT

Khalifa Saeed, the head of government protocol, noted on his Instagram that “directors and senior officials” at the Dubai Land Department and Department of Economic Development “were not present” when Sheikh Mohammed visited.

The response to the empty chairs in some of the government offices? “He certainly wanted to send a message,” Mona Al-Marri, director-general of the government of Dubai’s Media Office told Bloomberg. “Timeliness starts at the top and we won’t go after employees when their bosses aren’t there.’’

Sheikh Mohammed wanted to check in “on the quality of services [government entities] provide” according to the Dubai Media Office.

He started his tour at 7.30am and visited Dubai Municipality, Dubai Land Department, the DED and Dubai International Airport – the tour coincided with the first day of the school year in Dubai (some people were late due to stressed-out school drop off perhaps?).

During the tour, Sheikh Mohammed also reviewed the services provided at Dubai International Airport.

محمد بن راشد يتفقد سير العمل في مطار دبي في صباح اليوم الباكر

A video posted by Khalifa Saeed (@khalifasaeed) on

According to Sheikh Mohammed’s website the tour was “part of his keenness to follow up the progress of work in various government departments, especially service providers”.

Here’s the full list of retired Dubai Municipality execs…

•    Abdul Qader Al Jasmi, Executive Director of Legal Affairs Department
•    Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, Deputy Director General of Dubai Municipality
•    Mohammed Abdul Karim Julfar, Assistant Director General for Corporate Support Sector
•    Khaled Ali Ahmed bin Zayed Al Falasi, Assistant Director General for Communication and Community Sector
•    Engineer Abdullah Mohammad Rafi, Assistant Director General for Engineering and Planning Sector
•    Engineer Salah Amiri, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Services Sector
•    Engineer Salim bin Musmar, Assistant Director General for Environment, Health and Safety Control Sector
•    Obaid Salem Al Shamsi, Assistant Director General for Public Support Sector
•    Engineer Khalid Mohammed Saleh Al Mulla, Director of the Building Department

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