Ministry of Planning and Budget to overhaul special performance award system with public nominations, voting

The Ministry of Planning and Budget is overhauling its special performance award system to allow public nominations and review, in a bid to spread a performance-driven culture in the civil service and build a reward framework that meets public expectations.

The ministry announced Monday that it has begun accepting public nominations for candidates for the second round of the Special Performance Award.

The first round of the award, held in April, drew its candidate pool through internal nominations. Starting with this round, the ministry has added a public nomination banner to its website, opening the process to year-round public submissions.

The evaluation process is also being revamped to move away from internal and expert-only assessments and expand public participation.

The ministry is introducing a "three-stage public participation review model" to strengthen open verification procedures. Through the new system, it plans to embed in the civil service the governing philosophy that "outstanding performance must be met with correspondingly exceptional rewards," and to ensure recognition for achievements that resonate with the public.

The new review process runs in three stages. The first is a "public empathy vote" open to all citizens. The ministry will provide visualized summaries of each candidate's achievements, and initial rankings will be determined based on the vote results.

In the second stage, candidates that advance from the first round undergo in-depth, multi-perspective scrutiny through panel discussions involving external experts and internal managers.

The final stage features an open public audition. Results of real-time voting by an on-site panel — comprising the Budget Public Participation Group, the press corps and a youth advisory committee — are combined with online votes from the general public to select the winners.

The ministry said it plans to pair financial rewards, including special prize money, with personnel benefits such as bonus points in performance evaluations, to sustain motivation and spread a culture of innovation. It added that it would display a medal badge on the ministry's internal messaging system to keep award recipients' recognition visible at all times.