Cab Sec tutors officers to increase efficiency in decisions

The Cabinet Secretariat has taken a strong objection to the functioning of ‘few’ ministries and departments that have not been following the prescribed rules of ‘delayering’, which is ultimately hampering the Centre’s 2021 vision on initiative for ‘Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making’.

In a strongly worded note to all secretaries of the Government of India, the top-most office of bureaucracy has said, “This is against the essence of the reforms undertaken so far and creates potential delays in file processing”.

The Secretariat has sought immediate intervention to review the levels of disposal and channels of submission in the ministries/departments to ensure that levels do not exceed four and that the special secretary/additional secretary/joint secretary functions as bureau heads.

“The old format was cumbersome and too tedious in a department for rolling a file right from the section officer levels to deputy secretary, JS, AS, etc, which means multiple layers were involved in the movement of files. Now, new measures were incorporated into the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure, 2022, for delayering for immediate disposal and efficiency. While a few of them have been implemented, many, which include a very prominent Ministry, are yet to be implemented. Hence, the Cabinet Secretariat has sent a reminder to all the concerned HoDs of the Government of India,” explained a top Government officer.

“It observed that delayering is not being done and implemented in the true spirit, and a trend of increasing the channels of submission is observed in some ministries and departments. To sustain measures undertaken as part of increasing decision-making, you are advised to review levels of disposals. I request you to devote your personal attention to this matter and ensure that these measures are implemented in letter and spirit, thereby fostering speedy and efficient decision making in the Government,” said a descriptive note by Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan.

It has been suggested that each ministry and department will review the instructions on levels of disposals and channels of submission, keeping the number of levels to a minimum by delegating powers to lower formations.

“To facilitate quicker decision making, the channels submission should not be more than four. Many initiatives have been undertaken in recent years to make governance more responsive, accountable and transparent. The initiative for increasing efficiency in decision-making, implemented since 2021, is a step in the same direction. It aims to achieve flatter and leaner organisational structures by putting in place appropriate delegation at various levels, rationalising workloads, thereby speeding up decision-making while increasing productivity and efficiency of officers,” the note read.