This research assesses the gap between how citizens perceive government performance and how the government evaluates itself based on the criteria identified as New Public Management (NPM) practices and the criteria used by the Egyptian government in its excellence awards. Criteria assessed included performance orientation, transparency and accountability, innovation and creativity, and responsiveness. This research is empirical in nature and utilizes exploration and description to serve the theoretical background. A gap exists between the archival measure used by the government to assess and award excellence, and the perceptual measures reflected in citizens’ responses regarding how worthy the institution researched deserves the excellence award granted by the government. The findings of this paper suggest that NPM application in the Egyptian context does not show improvements in public service delivery and that receiving the Government Excellence Award has minimal impact on citizen perception of the institution receiving the award.