Babus told to follow biz rules

After serving for more than two decades in the administrative service, the senior babus are to be taught on business rules and preparation of the crucial memoranda for the cabinet meetings.

With complaints from the ministers on errors in cabinet memoranda and violation of business rules in obtaining the cabinet approvals on rise, the government has recently circulated a note asking the senior bureaucrats to toe the line.

The General Administration Department asked the special chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of various departments in the secretariat to “bestow personal attention while preparing the memoranda for cabinet” and “duly follow business rules and secretariat instructions.”

Official sources told this newspaper that Chief Secretary Mr S.V. Prasad raised the issue during a recent meeting with all the Special CS, principal secretaries and secretaries and directed the GAD to issue the instructions based on the minutes of the meeting. “In a particular case, the principal secretary did not circulate memoranda to cabinet regarding recruitment drive in respective department and remained incommunicado for two days before the meeting,” sources said.

The Chief Secretary gave clear instructions that the departmental heads should invariably make the memorandum available to the GAD at least 48 hours before the cabinet meeting.

He also pointed out that in some cases the memorandum also contained observations of deputy secretaries and joint secretaries also which he said is not envisaged in business rules.

Sources said the special chief secretary (finance), Mr G. Sudhir, complained to the Chief Secretary that files were being sent to his department after obtaining the approval of the cabinet. As per business rules, the proposals involving financial implications should first be vetted by the finance department before sent for cabinet approval. The Chief Secretary agreed with Mr Sudhir that circulating file directly to the cabinet was violation of business rules.