I'm not an expert on personnel management or how to alter the assessment process. It strikes me in general that if something is a national priority, one would expect that your civil service staff is evaluated somewhat on that criterion. Instead the current system is a disincentive structure. That is, if you put something out and it turns out to be inappropriate, you only get penalized. If you put something out and it's really good, you don't get a pat on the back; you get ignored.
So it would strike me that you want to have some kind of structure in terms of pay scales and performance reviews that are also incentives, not just an award system.